# Christopher Soames

Arthur Christopher John Soames, Baron Soames, GCMG, GCVO, CH, CBE, PC (12 October 1920 – 16 September 1987) was a British Conservative politician who served as a European Commissioner and the last Governor of Southern Rhodesia. He was previously Member of Parliament (MP) for Bedford from 1950 to 1966. He held several government posts and attained Cabinet rank.

## Early life and education

Soames was born in Penn, Buckinghamshire, England, the son of Captain Arthur Granville Soames (the brother of Olave Baden-Powell, World Chief Guide, both descendants of a brewing family who had joined the landed gentry) by his marriage to Hope Mary Woodbine Parish. His parents divorced while he was a boy, and his mother married her second husband Charles Rhys (later 8th Baron Dynevor), by whom she had further children including Richard Rhys, 9th Baron Dynevor.
Soames was educated at West Downs School, Eton College, and the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. He obtained a commission as an officer in the Coldstream Guards just before World War II broke out. During the war, he served in France, Italy, and North Africa and was awarded the French Croix de Guerre for his actions at the Second Battle of El Alamein in 1942.

## Political career

After military service during the Second World War, Soames served as the Assistant Military Attaché in Paris. He was the Conservative MP for Bedford from 1950 to 1966 and served under Anthony Eden as Under-Secretary of State for Air from 1955 to 1957 and under Harold Macmillan as Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty from 1957 to 1958. In the 1955 Birthday Honours, he was invested as Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).
In 1958 he was sworn of the Privy Council. He served under Macmillan as Secretary of State for War (outside the Cabinet) from 1958 to 1960 and then in the cabinets of Macmillan and his successor Alec Douglas-Home as Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food from July 1960 to 1964. Home had promised to promote him to Foreign Secretary if the Conservatives won the 1964 general election, but they did not.
Between 1965 and 1966, Soames was Shadow Foreign Secretary under Edward Heath. He lost his seat in Parliament in the 1966 election. In 1968 Harold Wilson appointed him Ambassador to France, where he served until 1972. During his tenure as ambassador, he was involved in the February 1969 "Soames affair", following a private meeting between Soames and French president Charles de Gaulle, the latter offering bilateral talks concerning a partnership for Britain in a larger and looser European union, the talks not involving other members. The British government eventually refused the offer, and that for a time strained Franco-British relations. He was then a Vice-President of the European Commission from 1973 to 1976. He was considered as a potential challenger to Edward Heath in the 1975 Conservative Party leadership election. The eventual winner Margaret Thatcher would have withdrawn if he had stood. He was created a life peer on 19 April 1978 as Baron Soames, of Fletching in the County of East Sussex.
He served as the interim governor of Southern Rhodesia from 1979 to 1980, charged with administering the terms of the Lancaster House Agreement and overseeing its governmental transition into Zimbabwe. From 1979 to 1981, he was Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Lords under Margaret Thatcher, concurrent with his duties in Southern Rhodesia.

## Outside politics

Soames served as president of the Royal Agricultural Society of England in 1973, was a non-executive director of N.M. Rothschild and Sons Ltd 1977–1979, and a director of the Nat West Bank 1978–1979.

## Personal life

Lord Soames married Mary Churchill, the youngest child of Winston and Clementine Churchill, on 11 February 1947. They had five children:
* Arthur Nicholas Winston Soames, Baron Soames of Fletching (b. 12 February 1948), Member of House of Lords, former Conservative MP and Shadow Secretary of State for Defence;
* Emma Mary Soames (b. 6 September 1949), editor of Saga magazine;
* Jeremy Bernard Soames (b. 25 May 1952);
* Charlotte Clementine Soames, Countess Peel (b. 17 July 1954), married to William Peel, 3rd Earl Peel, former Lord Chamberlain;
* Rupert Christopher Soames (b. 18 May 1959).
Lord Soames died from cancer at his home in Odiham on 16 September 1987. His ashes were buried within the Churchill plot at St Martin's Church, Bladon, near Woodstock, Oxfordshire.

## Honours

In date order:
* Croix de Guerre 1939–1945 (France) – 1942
* Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) (Civil division) – 1955
* Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG) – 1972
* Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) – 1972
* Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour (France) – 1972
* Robert Schuman Prize – 1976
* Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) – 1980

## Arms

Coat of arms of Christopher Soames :
* CrestIn front of a rising sun Proper upon a lure Gules feathered Argent fesswise a falcon belled Or.
* EscutcheonGules a chevron Or between in chief two mallets erect of the second and in base two wings conjoined in lure Argent.
* MottoVilius Virtutibus Aurum