Peter Carington, 6th Baron Carrington

Major The Right Honourable The Lord Carrington KG GCMG CH MC PC DL
6th Secretary General of NATO
In office 25 June 1984 – 1 July 1988
Preceded by	Joseph Luns
Succeeded by	Manfred Wörner
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
In office 4 May 1979 – 5 April 1982
Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by	David Owen
Succeeded by	Francis Pym
Shadow Leader of the House of Lords
In office 4 March 1974 – 4 May 1979
Leader	Edward Heath Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by	Lord Shackleton
Succeeded by	Lord Peart
In office 16 October 1964 – 20 June 1970
Leader	Alec Douglas-Home Edward Heath
Preceded by	The Earl Alexander of Hillsborough
Succeeded by	Lord Shackleton
Secretary of State for Energy
In office 8 January 1974 – 4 March 1974
Prime Minister	Edward Heath
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Eric Varley
Secretary of State for Defence
In office 20 June 1970 – 8 January 1974
Prime Minister	Edward Heath
Preceded by	Denis Healey
Succeeded by	Ian Gilmour
Chairman of the Conservative Party
In office 1972–1974
Leader	Edward Heath
Preceded by	Peter Thomas
Succeeded by	William Whitelaw
Leader of the House of Lords
In office 20 October 1963 – 16 October 1964
Prime Minister	Alec Douglas-Home
Preceded by	The Viscount Hailsham
Succeeded by	The Earl of Longford
Minister without Portfolio
In office 20 October 1963 – 16 October 1964
Prime Minister	Alec Douglas-Home
Preceded by	Bill Deedes
Succeeded by	George Thomson
First Lord of the Admiralty
In office 14 October 1959 – 20 October 1963
Prime Minister	Harold Macmillan
Preceded by	The Earl of Selkirk
Succeeded by	The Earl Jellicoe
High Commissioner to Australia
In office 1956–1959
Prime Minister	Anthony Eden Harold Macmillan
Preceded by	Stephen Holmes
Succeeded by	William Oliver
Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Defence
In office 1954–1956
Prime Minister	Winston Churchill Anthony Eden
Preceded by	Nigel Birch
Succeeded by	The Earl of Gosford
Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Defence
In office 1951–1954 Alongside Richard Nugent
Prime Minister	Winston Churchill
Preceded by	The Earl of Listowel Arthur Champion
Succeeded by	Richard Nugent The Earl St Aldwyn
Member of the House of Lords
Incumbent
Assumed office 17 November 1999 as a life peer
In office October 1945 – 11 November 1999 as a hereditary peer
Preceded by	Rupert Carington, 5th Baron Carrington
Succeeded by	House of Lords Act 1999
Personal details
Born	(1919-06-06) 6 June 1919 London, United Kingdom
Political party	Conservative
Spouse	Iona McClean ​ ​ (m. 1942; died 2009)​
Children	3
Alma mater	Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
Military service
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Branch/service	British Army
Years of service	1939–1949 (inactive from 1945)
Rank	Major (hon.) Captain
Unit	Grenadier Guards
Battles/wars	Second World War
Awards	Military Cross

Peter Alexander Rupert Carington, 6th Baron Carrington, KG, GCMG, CH, MC, PC, DL (born 6 June 1919) is a British Conservative politician who served as Defence Secretary between 1970 and 1974, Foreign Secretary between 1979 and 1982, chairman of General Electric between 1983 and 1984, and Secretary General of NATO from 1984 to 1988. He is the last surviving member of the 1951–55 government of Winston Churchill, and of the Cabinets of Harold Macmillan and Alec Douglas-Home. Following the House of Lords Act 1999, which removed the automatic right of hereditary peers to sit in the House of Lords, Carrington was created a life peer as Baron Carington of Upton, of Upton in the County of Nottinghamshire.

Carrington was Foreign Secretary in 1982 when the Falkland Islands were invaded by Argentina. He took full responsibility for the failure of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to foresee this and resigned. As Secretary General of NATO, he helped prevent a war between Greece and Turkey in 1987.

Background, education and military career

Carrington is the only son of the 5th Baron Carrington by his wife, the Hon. Sybil Marion Colville, a daughter of Charles Colville, 2nd Viscount Colville of Culross. He is a great-nephew of the Liberal statesman Charles Wynn-Carington, 1st Marquess of Lincolnshire, and also of politician and courtier the Hon. Sir William Carington. He was educated at two independent schools: Sandroyd School from 1928–1932, at the time based in the town of Cobham, Surrey, and Eton College, followed by the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.

Following Sandhurst, Carrington was commissioned into the Grenadier Guards as a second lieutenant on 26 January 1939. He served with the regiment during the Second World War, he was promoted lieutenant on 1 January 1941, and later rose to the rank of temporary captain and acting major, and was awarded the Military Cross (MC) on 1 March 1945. After the war, Carrington remained in the army until 1949.

Political career 1946–1982

In 1938, Carrington succeeded his father as 6th Baron Carrington. Although he became eligible to take his seat in the House of Lords on his 21st birthday in 1940, he was on active service at the time, and did not do so until October 1945. After leaving the Army, he became involved in politics and served in the Conservative governments of Winston Churchill and Anthony Eden as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food from November 1951 to October 1954 and to the Ministry of Defence from October 1954 to October 1956. The latter year Carrington was appointed High Commissioner to Australia, a post he held until October 1959. He was also appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire on 2 July 1951. He became a Privy Counsellor in 1959.

A stone set by Lord Carrington while High Commissioner to Australia, at the All Saints Church, Canberra

After his return to Britain he served under Harold Macmillan as First Lord of the Admiralty until October 1963, and was then Minister without Portfolio and Leader of the House of Lords under Alec Douglas-Home until October 1964, when the Conservatives fell from power. From 1964 to 1970 he was Leader of the Opposition in the House of Lords. When the Conservatives returned to power in 1970 under Edward Heath, Carrington became Defence Secretary, where he remained until 1974 when the Conservatives were voted out in favour of Harold Wilson's Labour. In a 1977 letter discussing the policy of torture of Irish republican internees during Operation Demetrius in August 1971, the then Home Secretary Merlyn Rees attributed the origins of the policy in particular to Carrington: '"It is my view (confirmed by Brian Faulkner before his death [NI's prime minister at the time]) that the decision to use methods of torture in Northern Ireland in 1971/72 was taken by ministers – in particular Lord Carrington, then secretary of state for defence."

Carrington had become Shadow Defence Secretary in 1968 following the dismissal of Enoch Powell from the position following his controversial Rivers of Blood speech on immigration. He also served as Chairman of the Conservative Party from 1972 to 1974, and was briefly Secretary of State for Energy from January to March 1974.

Carrington (then Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs) and Alexander Haig (then US Secretary of State) meeting during visit of Margaret Thatcher to the United States

Carrington was again Leader of the Opposition in the House of Lords from 1974 to 1979. In 1979 he was made Foreign Secretary and Minister for Overseas Development as part of the first Cabinet of Margaret Thatcher. Thatcher spoke very highly of Carrington, stating "Peter had great panache and the ability to identify immediately the main points in any argument; and he could express himself in pungent terms. We had disagreements, but there were never any hard feelings." He chaired the Lancaster House conference in 1979, attended by Ian Smith, Abel Muzorewa, Robert Mugabe, Joshua Nkomo, and Josiah Tongogara, which brought to end Southern Rhodesia's civil war, the Second Chimurenga or 'Rhodesian Bush War'. He would later express his support for Mugabe over Smith. He was Foreign Secretary in 1982 when the Falkland Islands were invaded by Argentina. He took full responsibility for the complacency and failures in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to foresee this development and resigned. Ministerial resignations in such circumstances are rare, and Carrington's attracted animated press discussion of the principles involved; it may be no coincidence that he had in 1954 been junior minister to Thomas Dugdale at the time of the latter's landmark resignation as Minister of Agriculture over the Crichel Down affair, and had then himself offered his resignation but been persuaded to withdraw it.

Later career

Lord Carrington then served as Secretary General of NATO from 1984 to 1988. He was also appointed Chancellor of the Order of St Michael and St George on 1 August 1984, serving until June 1994.

In 1991, he presided over diplomatic talks about the break-up of the former Yugoslavia and attempted to pass a plan that would end the wars and result in each republic becoming an independent nation.

Apart from his political posts, he was the Chancellor of the University of Reading and has served as chairman of several companies, including Christie's, and as a director of many others, including Barclays Bank, Schweppes and the Daily Telegraph. He also chaired the Bilderberg conferences for several years in the late 1990s, being succeeded in 1999 by Étienne Davignon. From 1983 to 2002, he was president of the Pilgrims Society. He was appointed Chancellor of the Order of the Garter on 8 November 1994, a role from which he retired in October 2012.

After the House of Lords Act 1999 removed the automatic right of hereditary peers to sit in the House of Lords, Carrington, along with all former Leaders of the House of Lords, was given a life peerage on 17 November 1999 as Baron Carington of Upton, of Upton in the County of Nottinghamshire. He is the longest-serving member of the House of Lords, and since the retirement of Lord Barber of Tewkesbury in 2016, has been the oldest. He is the second longest-serving member of the Privy Council after The Duke of Edinburgh.

Family

Lord Carrington married Iona McClean, daughter of Lt.-Colonel Sir Francis Kennedy McClean AFC, on 25 April 1942. They have three children:

• The Hon. Alexandra Carington DL (Norfolk) (born 1943); married Major Peter de Bunsen in 1965, becoming the Hon. Mrs de Bunsen. They have three children:

• Victoria de Bunsen (born 1968)
• Charles Rupert de Bunsen (born 1970)
• James Peter de Bunsen (born 1973)

• The Hon. Virginia Carington LVO (born 1946); married Henry Cubitt, 4th Baron Ashcombe, in 1973, becoming Lady Ashcombe. The couple divorced in 1979.
• The Hon. Rupert Francis John Carington DL (Buckinghamshire) (born 1948) – heir apparent; married Daniela Diotallevi in 1989. They have three children:

• Robert Carington (born 1990)
• Francesca Carington (born 1993)
• Isabella Iona Carington (born 1995)

NATO Secretary General Lord Carrington with West German Foreign Minister Genscher in Bonn, 1984

Lord Carrington's wife, Lady Carrington, died on 7 June 2009.

In popular culture

Carrington was portrayed by Rowan Atkinson on Not the Nine O'Clock News in a parody of Question Time, in which Lord Carrington was portrayed as pedantically discussing an imminent nuclear holocaust.

Carrington was portrayed by James Fox in the 2002 BBC production of Ian Curteis's The Falklands Play.

Carrington was referenced on the 6th series of Peep Show (2009) in a list of imagined dog names by Mark.

Carrington was briefly portrayed by James Smith in the 2011 film The Iron Lady.

Carrington was briefly portrayed by Jeff Rawle in the 2014 play Handbagged.

Titles, styles, honours, and arms

Titles and styles

• 6 June 1919 – 1929: Mr Peter Carington
• 1929 – 19 November 1938: The Honourable Peter Carington
• 19 November 1938 – 1945: The Right Honourable The Lord Carrington
• 1945–1951: The Right Honourable The Lord Carrington MC
• 1951–1956: The Right Honourable The Lord Carrington MC DL
• 1956–1958: His Excellency The Right Honourable The Lord Carrington MC DL
• 1958–1959: His Excellency The Right Honourable The Lord Carrington KCMG MC DL
• 1959–1983: The Right Honourable The Lord Carrington KCMG MC PC DL
• 1983–1985: The Right Honourable The Lord Carrington CH KCMG MC PC DL
• 1985–1988: The Right Honourable The Lord Carrington KG CH KCMG MC PC DL
• 1988–present: The Right Honourable The Lord Carrington KG GCMG CH MC PC DL

Honours

Lord Carrington, as Chancellor of the Order of the Garter, in procession to St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in 2006

• Military Cross, 1945
• Knight Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George (KCMG), 1958
• Lord of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, 1959
• Companion of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH), 1983
• Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter (KG), 1985; Chancellor of the Order from 1994
• Knight Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George (GCMG), 1988 Chancellor of the Order 1984–94
• Life peerage, as Baron Carington of Upton, 1999
• Medal of Honour, for his contribution regarding Serbian war crimes committed against civilians in Croatia (especially in the Vukovar massacre and rough displacement of citizens), 1999
• Presidential Medal of Freedom, 1988
• Freedom of the City of London

Honorary degrees

• University of Cambridge (LL.D) in 1981.
• University of Essex (DUniv) in 1983.
• University of Reading (DLitt) in December 1989.
• Harvard University (LLD) in 1986.
• University of Nottingham (LLD) in 1993.
• University of Newcastle upon Tyne (DCL) 14 December 1998.
• University of Oxford (DCL) 21 November 2003.

Arms

Coat of arms of Peter Carington, 6th Baron Carrington

Notes 6th Baron Carrington since 1938 Coronet A coronet of a Baron Crest An elephant's head erased or eared gules charged on the neck with three fleurs-de-lis, two and one azure. Torse Mantling:Or and sable. Escutcheon Or, a chevron cotised between three demi-griffins couped those in chief respectant sable. Supporters Two griffins wings elevated sable, the dexter charged on the body with three fleurs-de-lis palewise or and the sinister with three trefoils slipped palewise of the last. Motto TENAX ET FIDELIS Latin: Tenacious and faithful Orders The Order of the Garter circlet.

Ancestry

Family of Peter Carington, 6th Baron Carrington

16. Robert Smith, 1st Baron Carrington 8. Robert Carrington, 2nd Baron Carrington 17. Anne Boldero-Barnard 4. Rupert Carington, 4th Baron Carrington 18. Peter Drummond-Burrell, 22nd Baron Willoughby de Eresby 9. Hon. Charlotte Drummond-Burrell 19. Lady Sarah Clementina Drummond 2. Rupert Carington, 5th Baron Carrington 20. Jonas Horsefall 10. John Sutcliffe Horsefall 21. Martha Sutcliffe 5. Edith Horsefall 22. James Maiden 11. Mary Maiden 23. Jane Davies 1. Peter Carington, 6th Baron Carrington 24. Gen. Sir Charles Colville 12. Charles Colville, 1st Viscount Colville of Culross 25. Jane Mure 6. Charles Colville, 2nd Viscount Colville of Culross 26. Robert Carrington, 2nd Baron Carrington (=8) 13. Hon. Cecil Katherine Carrington 27. Hon. Elizabeth Weld-Forester 3. Hon. Sybil Marion Colville 28. Henry Streatfeild 14. Lt.-Col. Henry Dorrien Streatfeild 29. Maria Dorrien-Magens 7. Ruby Streatfeild 30. Oswald Smith 15. Marion Henrietta Smith 31. Henrietta Mildred Hodgson

Bibliography

• Reflect on Things Past – The Memoirs of Lord Carrington. Published by William Collins, 1988.

External links

• Announcement of his taking the oath under his new title at the House of Lords House of Lords minutes of proceedings, 17 November 1999
• Lord Carrington's views on the EU from the Daily Telegraph
• Thatcher's First Cabinet
• Imperial War Museum Interview