1. Bill Deedes was the first person in Britain to have been both a member of the Cabinet and the editor of a major daily newspaper, The Daily Telegraph.
26 Facts About Bill Deedes
1. 2.
Bill Deedes was born in Hampstead in 1913, the second child and only son of landowner Herbert William Bill Deedes and his wife Melesina Gladys, daughter of Philip Francis Chenevix Trench.
3.
Bill Deedes was brought up in the family home of Saltwood Castle until it was sold in 1925.
4.
Bill Deedes fought with the British Army in the Second World War, being based initially at Shrapnel Barracks in Woolwich as an officer in the 2nd Battalion, Queen's Westminsters, one of the Territorial Army units of the King's Royal Rifle Corps, into which he was commissioned in June 1939.
5.
Bill Deedes gained the Military Cross near Hengelo, the Netherlands in April 1945.
6.
Bill Deedes rose to the rank of major and was the only officer to serve in 12th King's Royal Rifle Corps for the duration of the war.
7.
Bill Deedes's battalion served as the motorised battalion of 8th Armoured Brigade in the North-west Europe campaign.
8.
Bill Deedes came from a family with a tradition of public service.
9.
Bill Deedes was very proud of the fact that there had been a Deedes member of parliament in every century since 1600.
10.
Bill Deedes was elected as the Conservative Member of Parliament for Ashford in 1950.
11.
Bill Deedes left the Cabinet in 1964, as Minister of Information, and subsequently stood down as an MP at the October 1974 election.
12.
Bill Deedes was editor of The Daily Telegraph from 1974 to 1986 and, after he was replaced by Max Hastings, continued his career as a journalist.
13.
Bill Deedes's tenure was noted for battles with the print unions.
14.
Bill Deedes continued to comment on social and political issues through his newspaper columns until his death.
15.
Bill Deedes was a stalwart member of the Carlton Club and was appointed as an ambassador for UNICEF in 1998, running high-profile campaigns against landmines.
16.
Bill Deedes continued to write into his 94th year, with his final article, published on 3 August 2007, about Darfur.
17.
Bill Deedes was married to Evelyn Hilary Branfoot, who died in May 2004, by whom he had two sons Jeremy and Julius and three daughters, Juliet, Jill and Lucy.
18.
Bill Deedes was never particularly well-off, preferring to use public transport whenever possible.
19.
Bill Deedes was created a life peer on 23 September 1986, becoming Baron Deedes, of Aldington in the County of Kent, but he always preferred to be addressed as "Bill", rather than "Lord Deedes".
20.
Bill Deedes was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1998, when he was surprised by Michael Aspel.
21.
Bill Deedes's son, Jeremy Deedes, was a director of the Telegraph Group of companies and was a director of lobbyists Pelham Bell Pottinger.
22.
Bill Deedes has been a director of the Tote, chairman of The Sportsman newspaper, and was a director of Warwick Racecourse.
23.
Lucy Bill Deedes is a former Master of Foxhounds and was the first wife of Crispin James Alan Nevill Money-Coutts, 9th Baron Latymer.
24.
Bill Deedes is the mother of society magician Drummond Money-Coutts and the journalist Sophia Money-Coutts.
25.
Bill Deedes died from bronchopneumonia at his home in Aldington on 17 August 2007, at the age of 94.
26.
Bill Deedes was close to Margaret Thatcher and her husband Denis.