George Jellicoe, 2nd Earl Jellicoe facts for kids

Quick facts for kids The Right Honourable The Earl Jellicoe KBE DSO MC PC FRS FRGS FRSGS
George Jellicoe, 2nd Earl Jellicoe
Leader of the House of Lords Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal
In office 20 June 1970 – 23 May 1973
Prime Minister	Edward Heath
Preceded by	The Lord Shackleton
Succeeded by	The Lord Windlesham
Minister of State for Navy
In office 1 April 1964 – 16 October 1964
Prime Minister	Sir Alec Douglas Home
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Christopher Mayhew
First Lord of the Admiralty
In office 22 October 1963 – 1 April 1964
Prime Minister	Sir Alec Douglas Home
Preceded by	The Lord Carrington
Succeeded by	Elizabeth II as Lord High Admiral
Minister of State for Home Affairs
In office 17 July 1962 – 21 October 1963
Prime Minister	Harold Macmillan
Preceded by	David Renton
Succeeded by	The Lord Derwent
Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Housing and Local Government
In office 27 June 1961 – 16 July 1962
Prime Minister	Harold Macmillan
Preceded by	Keith Joseph
Succeeded by	Frederick Corfield
Lord-in-waiting Government Whip
In office 8 February 1961 – 27 June 1961
Prime Minister	Harold Macmillan
Preceded by	The Earl Bathurst
Succeeded by	The Lord Denham
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
as a hereditary peer 25 July 1939 – 11 November 1999
Preceded by	The 1st Earl Jellicoe
Succeeded by	Seat abolished
as a life peer 17 November 1999 – 22 February 2007
Personal details
Born	4 April 1918 Hatfield, Hertfordshire United Kingdom
Died	22 February 2007(2007-02-22) (aged 88) Tidcombe, Wiltshire United Kingdom
Political party	Conservative
Children	eight
Residence	Tidcombe
Education	Winchester College
Alma mater	Trinity College, Cambridge
Occupation	Politician, businessman
Military service
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Branch/service	British Army
Rank	Brigadier
Unit	Coldstream Guards Special Air Service Special Boat Service
Battles/wars	Second World War
Awards	Distinguished Service Order Military Cross Croix de Guerre Mentioned in Despatches (3)

George Patrick John Rushworth Jellicoe, 2nd Earl Jellicoe, Baron Jellicoe of Southampton, KBE, DSO, MC, PC, FRS, FRGS, FRSGS (4 April 1918 – 22 February 2007), was a British politician, diplomat and businessman.

Lord Jellicoe was the only son but sixth and youngest child of John Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe, who was a First World War naval commander, commander at the Battle of Jutland, and Admiral of the Fleet; and his wife Florence Gwendoline (died 1964), who was the second daughter of Sir Charles Cayzer, 1st Bt., of Gartmore, Perthshire. He inherited the title Earl Jellicoe at the age of 17, on the death of his father. As well as commanding the Special Boat Service in the Second World War, George Jellicoe was a long-serving parliamentarian, being a member of the House of Lords for 68 years (1939–2007).

Early life

Jellicoe was born at Hatfield and was christened on 29 July 1918 by the Most Rev. and Right Hon. Cosmo Lang, 89th Archbishop of York, while King George V (represented by Admiral Sir Stanley Colville) and Princess Patricia of Connaught (later known as Lady Patricia Ramsay) stood sponsor as two of his godparents. The others were: Miss Lilian Lear, Admiral Sir Lionel Halsey (Third Sea Lord), Mr. Eustace Burrows (cousin), Major Herbert Cayzer (uncle), and The Rev. Frederick G. G. Jellicoe (uncle, and Rector of New Alresford).

Much of his childhood was spent at St Lawrence Hall, near Ventnor on the Isle of Wight; at St Peter's Court, a prep school at Broadstairs, Kent; in London; and in the Dominion of New Zealand, where his father was viceroy with the title of Governor-General between 1921 and 1924. He was educated at Winchester College, where he was styled and known as Viscount Brocas. He won the Vere Herbert Smith history prize and secured an exhibition to Trinity College, Cambridge (matriculated 1936. BA, Modern History tripos 1939, but awarded 1966). He was chairman of the Pitt Club, and his tutor Steven Runciman became a lifelong friend.

Second World War

In October 1939, Jellicoe was a cadet in the first wartime intake at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He was commissioned into the Coldstream Guards on 23 March 1940, before joining No. 8 (Guards) Commando, with whom on 31 January 1941 he sailed to the Middle East with Colonel Robert Laycock's Layforce (whose commando officers included Evelyn Waugh, Randolph Churchill, Philip Dunne, Carol Mather, David Stirling, and many distinguished others). He served with L Detachment (from April 1942) (with some of the above and Stephen Hastings), which was the nucleus of the Special Air Service. He was mentioned in despatches thrice, and wounded (bullet in shoulder) once whilst with the 3rd Battalion, Coldstream Guards, in 22 (Guards) Brigade in the Western Desert in January 1941. In September 1943, Jellicoe was sent to the Italian-held island of Rhodes to negotiate with the Italian Admiral Inigo Campioni for the surrender of his forces to the Allies. However, negotiations were pre-empted by a surprise German attack on the island on 9 September. He was able to escape from Rhodes during the resulting chaos while the Italian garrison was captured by the German invasion force. This was part of the Dodecanese Campaign.

In 1943, he was named Commander of the Special Boat Regiment, Middle East, and he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He was eventually promoted to brigadier. For the remainder of the war, his SBS command conducted secretive and dangerous operations along the coasts of Italy and Yugoslavia. In 1944, he won the MC for one of these actions. At the end of the war, Jellicoe was among the first Allied soldiers to enter German-occupied Athens, beating the communist-controlled guerrillas ELAS, to create a pro-Allied presence in the capital.

Years later, when First Lord of the Admiralty, Jellicoe told at least one reporter, "The only serious military distinction I ever achieved was having a new type of assault boat named after me. It was called I am ashamed to say, the Jellicoe Inflatable Intruder Mark One."

In March 1944, Lord Jellicoe married Patricia Christine O'Kane (October 1917 – March 2012), who was employed at the British Embassy in Beirut. She had been born and raised in Shanghai and was the daughter of a Greenock-born Irish father and an English mother. Patricia, Countess Jellicoe (popularly known as Patsy Jellicoe), would remain married to Lord Jellicoe until 1966, when they divorced. They had two sons and two daughters together, the eldest son being the 3rd Earl Jellicoe.

HM Foreign Service 1947–1958

Soon after the war, Lord Jellicoe joined His Majesty's Foreign Service (appointed a Foreign Service Officer, Grade 8, in the Senior Branch of the Foreign Service, 10 September 1947). He served in London (German political department, Third Secretary); Washington (Third Secretary, when Donald Maclean of the Cambridge five was Head of Chancery, and then as one of the 11 Second Secretaries with H. A. R. Philby, seeing NATO signed on 4 April 1949, all when Sir Oliver Franks was Ambassador); transferred to Brussels 10 September 1951 (Head of Chancery) acted as Chargé d'Affaires in 1952); London (no. 2 in Northern department in charge of the Soviet Desk from September 1953); and Baghdad from January 1956 (First Secretary and Deputy Secretary General of the Baghdad Pact Organisation). The Suez Crisis (from July 1956) wrecked everything the Pact was trying to achieve; Jellicoe was appalled by British policy and came close to resigning (L. Windmill p. 136).

Jellicoe eventually left the Foreign Office in March 1958, after marital difficulties had caused an impasse (February 1958, Permanent Secretary Sir Derek Hoyar-Millar wrote; 'You have a choice of ceasing your relationship with this lady [Philippa Dunne] or changing your job'). He became a director of the Cayzer dynasty's Clan Line Steamers (cargo ships), and Union Castle Steamship Co. (passengers).

However, enthusiasm for his mother's family's businesses ultimately gave way to the call of the Palace of Westminster, where, back from Iraq, he took the Oath in the Lords on 3 December 1957, in the Third Session of the 41st Parliament.

House of Lords and 1960s

Jellicoe during a skiing holiday.

Jellicoe skiing in France.

Having first sat in parliament on 25 July 1939, Jellicoe waited until 28 July 1958 to make his maiden speech in the House of Lords during a debate entitled "The International Situation: The Middle East".

By October 1958 he had joined the Conservatives, in the Lords a natural home for such a distinctly pink Whig, who gave him the honour of moving "an humble Address in Reply to Her Majesty's Most Gracious Speech"

On 20 July 1959, he initiated a debate on Western aid for uncommitted countries, and by January 1961 he was a Lord-in-waiting to H.M. the Queen, a Government Whip, in Macmillan's administration. He was Joint Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Local Government June 1961 – July 1962; Minister of State, Home Office July 1962 – October 1963; First Lord of the Admiralty October 1963 – April 1964; Minister of Defence for the Royal Navy April–October 1964; delegate to the Council of Europe and the Western European Union (WEU) 1965–1967; president of the National Federation of Housing Societies 1965–1970; a governor of the Centre for Environmental Studies 1967–1970; chairman of the British Advisory Committee on Oil Pollution at Sea 1968; chairman of the third International Conference on oil pollution of the sea 1968; an hon. vice-president of PEST (Pressure for Economic and Social Toryism); and deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Lords 1967–1970. From April 1967 Lords Jellicoe and Carrington represented the Conservatives in the Lords on the Inter-Party conference group on Lords' reform, which came up with the unsuccessful Parliament (No.2) Bill (1968–1969).

During the late 1960s he worked in the City of London where he became chairman of British Reserve Insurance and a director of S G Warburg (Finance and Development) Ltd.

Cabinet minister and resignation

In Ted Heath's administration he was Minister in charge for the Civil Service Department (CSD), Lord Privy Seal (as such he was eighth on the Roll of The Lords) and Leader of the House of Lords from 20 June 1970 until 24 May 1973.

Having earlier re-established relations with the miners' union leaders in February 1972, Heath appointed Jellicoe "energy supremo" to restore power supplies around the time of the Three-Day Week and had him set up and chair a Civil Contingencies Unit, which was, when an internal crisis arose, to operate through "COBRA" (Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms).

In June 1972 Jellicoe was sent to lead Concorde's first sales expedition.

Trengove considered Sir George Edwards and Sir Geoffrey Tuttle "equally impressive members of the sales team". (Supersonic flights were on the prototype Concorde G-BSST, certificate signed by Brian Trubshaw, and dated 15 June 1972.)

Jellicoe, with the help of his very experienced Chief Whip, the second Earl St Aldwyn, steered the European Communities Act (1972) through the Lords, allowing no amendments. The Industrial Relations Act was another legislative highlight.

..... His name seems to have emerged as a result of a connection between Lambton, the madame Norma Levy, and a tenement house or community hall in Somers Town in the London district of St. Pancras called Jellicoe Hall or House, after Basil Jellicoe (1899–1935) the housing reformer and priest. The word Jellicoe was seen in Levy's notebook, and a connection was assumed to the Minister rather than the building; a structure named after the earl's distant cousin, and one that may have been opened by the Admiral himself in June 1928.

The resignation ended Jellicoe's third career in government service.

Lord Byers for the Liberal Party added: "we regret bitterly his resignation ... He was a reforming innovator and the House owes a great deal more than it probably knows to the interest he took in this House and to his initiatives." (Hansard, 5 June 1973)

Business and post-government public career

With no estates to distract him, Jellicoe was free to re-join S. G. Warburg & Co. (1 October 1973), and with the help of Alan Lennox-Boyd, who was soon to retire from the board, he became a non-executive director of the sugar company Tate & Lyle in 1973, a position held until 1993. Thanks in the main to Sir Saxon Tate, and presumably because he had succeeded as chairman (until June 1978) of their subsidiary Tunnel Refineries, the family made him Tate & Lyle's first non-family chairman 1978–1983. Having revived and retrenched Tate & Lyle, Jellicoe became chairman of Booker Tate, 1988–91.

Other non-governmental jobs included: chairman of engineering plant company the Davy Corporation (Davy McKee) (now subsumed into Aker Kværner) 1985–1990; director Sotheby's Holdings 1973–1993; Morgan Crucible 1974–88; Smiths Industries Ltd 1973–1986; S. G. Warburg & Co 1964–1970, 1973–1988. He was president of the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry 1979–1982. He succeeded Lord Limerick as chairman of the Department of Trade and Industry's British Overseas Trade Board (BOTB) 1983–1986, for which he was knighted. That was followed by chairmanship (1986–1990) and then the presidency (1990–1995) of the East European Trade Council (EETC). He was chairman of the Greek Fund Ltd 1988–1994 (Schroders) and of European Capital Ltd 1991–1995.

Lord Jellicoe was chairman of the council of King's College London (KCL) 1974–1983; chairman of the Medical Research Council (MRC) 1982–1990; a trustee of the National Aids Trust (alongside the likes of Lord Goodman, David Puttnam and Robert Maxwell); president of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) (and of the Institute of British Geographers (IBG) after amalgamation) 1993–1997; president of the Anglo-Hellenic League 1978–1986; president of the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust 1987–1994; president of the UK Crete Veterans Association 1991–2001; president of the British Heart Foundation (BHF) 1992–1995; chancellor of Southampton University 1984–1995, and has been closely associated with research and higher education. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1990.

In 1995 he helped found Hakluyt & Company, a strategic intelligence and advisory firm, for which he was a director 1996–2000. He was president of the SAS Regimental Association 1996–2000, when he became its patron. Jellicoe was a member of the Onassis International Prizes Committee (1983–1992); a vice-president of The European-Atlantic Group and of the Byron Society; he was on the board of the Hellenic College London; patron of the City of Southampton Society; a patron of the Greek Archaeological Committee (UK); one of five patrons of The Community Foundation for Wiltshire and Swindon; a director of The Landscape Foundation (now dormant); patron of Friends of The Royal Hospital School; patron of the Hampshire and Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology; a member of the World Innovation Fund (WIF) and an associate member of INEED. In 2002 he became a patron of The Second World War Experience Centre in Leeds.

Later state contributions

He was chairman of the Lords' Select Committee on Committees (1990–1993) and President of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee (1980–1983). In 1983 he was author of the Jellicoe Report which reviewed the operation of the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act 1976. The Times saw this appointment as the end of nine years penance in the political wilderness.

Between 1963 and 1973, Jellicoe had averaged 90 House of Lords daily attendances per parliamentary session. From 1973 to 1989, his attendance fell to an average of nine appearances per session. However, between 1990 and 2001, he made an average of 72 visits per session. He maintained this rate until early 2006, though his last full speech in the Lords was made as part of the Address in Reply to Her Majesty's Most Gracious Speech (the Queen's Speech debate) on 28 October 1996; his subject was Ukraine.

Lord Jellicoe remained an active member of the House of Lords for the rest of his life. At his death in 2007, Lord Jellicoe was the longest-serving member of the House of Lords, and arguably the longest-serving parliamentarian in the world, having succeeded his father on 20 November 1935 and come of age and sat first in parliament on 25 July 1939. Because he waited until 28 July 1958 to make his maiden speech, a few peers (viz. Earl Ferrers and Lords Renton, Carrington, Healey, and Strabolgi) could have been considered to have been active parliamentarians longer. Moreover, at the time of his death, on the Privy Council only the Duke of Edinburgh (1951) and Lords Carrington (1959), Deedes and Renton (both 1962) had served longer.

Character

In July 1970, as one of the first people to be breathalized, he was banned from driving for a year and fined 75 pounds with 20 guineas costs for having consumed more than the permitted level of alcohol in Old Brompton Road at 4 a.m. on 21 March 1970. Luck saw to it that the case came after the General Election and the ban coincided with the arrival of his right to a full-time government car.

Lorna Windmill's biography termed Jellicoe a "British Achilles" on account of two of his careers derailing as a result of women: in the 1950s for love, and in the 1970s for escorts.

Personal life

Lord Jellicoe married firstly, 23 March 1944, Patricia O'Kane (1917–2012), by whom he had two sons and two daughters. He married secondly, in 1966, Philippa, daughter of Captain Philip Dunne (1904–1965), by whom he had one son and two daughters. He had eight children in total, born between 1944 and 1984. He was a member of Brooks's (since 1940), the Special Forces Club, the Ski Club of Great Britain and was a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Mercers.

He died on 22 February 2007, six weeks before his 89th birthday, at Tidcombe Manor, his house in Wiltshire.

Honours