Julian Amery

Amery was born in Chelsea, London. His father was Leo Amery, a British statesman and Conservative politician. He was educated at Eaton House,[2] Summer Fields School, Eton College and Balliol College, Oxford. While an undergraduate, he had a brief romance with the novelist Barbara Pym, who was six years his senior.[3]

Before the Second World War started, Amery was a war correspondent in the Spanish Civil War and later an attaché for the British Foreign Office in Belgrade. After the war began he joined the RAF as a sergeant in 1940, then was commissioned and transferred to the British Army on the General List in 1941, reaching the rank of Captain.

He spent 1941–42 in the eastern Mediterranean (the Middle East, Malta, Yugoslavia) and served as Liaison Officer to the Albanian Resistance Movement in 1943–44 ("The Musketeers": Captain Julian Amery, Major David Smiley and Lieutenant-Colonel Neil McLean). The following year, Amery went to China to work with General Carton de Wiart, then Prime Minister's Personal Representative to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. Amery became a close friend of King Zog of Albania and described him as "the cleverest man I have ever met".[4]

Amery won a Parliamentary seat in the first general election held after he returned to civilian life, in 1950. He was elected as Conservative MP for Preston North, going on to hold a number of government offices, all in governments led by his father-in-law, now the Prime Minister. He began with two Under-Secretaryships of State: for War (1957–58) and for the Colonies (1958–60). He was promoted to Secretary of State for Air (1960–62), followed by a promotion to the post of Minister of Aviation (1962–64). In this role, Amery played a major role in developing the supersonic passenger service known as Concorde.

Amery lost his seat in 1966, but was elected again in 1969 for Brighton Pavilion, a seat he would hold until 1992 when he retired. On 8 July 1992, he was created a life peer as Baron Amery of Lustleigh, of Preston in the County of Lancashire and of Brighton in the County of East Sussex.[5]

Under the Heath administration, Amery held three ministerial posts: Minister for Public Works (1970), Minister for Housing and Construction (1970–72) and Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1972–74).

On 26 January 1950, he married Catherine Macmillan (19 November 1926 - 27 May 1991), daughter of Harold Macmillan. The couple had one son and three daughters.[10]

Amery died on 3 September 1996 in Westminster, London. He is buried with his wife (who predeceased him) at the Church of St John the Baptist in Lustleigh, Devon.[11]

Citations

Bibliography

• Copping, Robert, The Story of The Monday Club – The First Decade, April 1972 (P/B); and The Monday Club – Crisis and After (Foreword by John Biggs-Davison, M.P.), May 1975, (P/B), pps:12 & 24, published by the Current Affairs Information Service.
• Amery, Julian, M.P., et al., Rhodesia and the Threat to the West Monday Club, London, 1976 (P/B).
• Gash, Norman, with Donald Southgate, David Dilks, and John Ramsden; introduction by Lord Butler, K.G.,P.C., The Conservatives – A History of their Origins to 1965 London, 1977, pps:268-9. ISBN 0-04-942157-3
• Amery, Julian, PC, MP, The Next Four Years, in the Primrose League Gazette, vol.87, no.4, October 1983, London.
• Amery, Julian, MP, The Rt. Hon., Facing up to Soviet Imperialism, in the Monday Club's October 1985 Conservative Party Conference issue of their newspaper, Right Ahead.
• Horne, Alistair, Macmillan, 1894–1956, (volume 1 of the official biography), London, 1988/9, ISBN 0-333-27691-4, pps: 81, 253, 275, 326, 388, 441.
• Messina, Anthony M, Race and Party Competition in Britain, Oxford, 1989, p. 138, ISBN 0-19-827534-X
• Dod's Parliamentary Companion 1991, 172 edition, East Sussex, p. 394, ISBN 0-905702-17-4
• Clark, Alan, The Tories – Conservatives and The Nation State, London, 1998, pps: 324–5, ISBN 0-297-81849-X
• Heffer, Simon, Like the Roman: The Life of Enoch Powell, London, 1998, ISBN 0-297-84286-2
• Weale, Adrian, Patriot Traitors – Roger Casement & John Amery, London, 2001, ISBN 0-670-88498-7
• Faber, David, Speaking for England, London, 2005, ISBN 0-7432-5688-3
• Stephen Dorril MI6: Inside the Covert World of Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service – The Free Press – New York – 2000 (ISBN 0-7432-0379-8).
• Colonel David Smiley Albanian Assignment Chatto & Windus, London, 1984. Foreword by Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor. SOE in Albania (1943–44).
• Colonel David Smiley Arabian Assignment Cooper, London, 1975. MI6 – Oman and Yemen.
• Colonel David Smiley Irregular regular Michael Russell, Norwich, 1994 (ISBN 0 85955 202 0). Translated in French, Au coeur de l'action clandestine. Des Commandos au MI6, L'Esprit du Livre Editions, 2008. The Memoirs of a SOE officer (Albania, Asia) and MI6 agent (Poland, Malta, Oman, Yémen), brother in arms of Julian Amery.
• ALBANIA IN WW II by Julian Amery, from Oxford Companion to the Second World War (1995), pp. 24–26
• The London Gazette

• Amery, Julian, The Life of Joseph Chamberlain, Vol, Four, 1901-1903, At the Height of His Power, London: MacMillan, 1951.
• Amery, Julian, The Life of Joseph Chamberlain, Vol. Five, 1901-1903, And the Tariff Reform Campaign, London: MacMillan, 1969.
• Amery, Julian, The Life of Joseph Chamberlain, Vol. Six, 1903-1968, And the Tariff Reform Campaign, London: MacMillan, 1969.

• Garvin, James Louis, The Life of Joseph Chamberlain, Vol. One, 1836-1885, Chamberlain and Democracy, London: MacMillan, 1932.
• Garvin, James Louis, The Life of Joseph Chamberlain, Vol. Two, 1885-1895, Disruption and Combat, London: MacMillan, 1933.
• Garvin, James Louis, The Life of Joseph Chamberlain, Vol. Three, 1895-1900, Empire and World Policy, London: MacMillan, 1934.

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Julian Amery
• Index entry at JANUS