Airey Neave Airey Middleton Sheffield Neave , DSO , OBE , MC ( 23 January 1916 – 30 March 1979 ) was a British soldier , barrister and politician . During World War II , Neave was one of the few servicemen to escape from the German prisoner - of - war camp Oflag IV - C at Colditz Castle . He later became Conservative Member of Parliament ( MP ) for Abingdon . Neave was assassinated in 1979 in a car - bomb attack at the House of Commons . The Irish National Liberation Army ( INLA ) claimed responsibility . Early life . Neave was the son of Sheffield Airey Neave ( 1879 – 1961 ) , a well - known entomologist , and his wife Dorothy ( d . 1943 ) , the daughter of Arthur Thomson Middleton . His father was the grandson of Sheffield Neave , the third son of Sir Thomas Neave , 2nd Baronet ( see Neave Baronets ) . Neave spent his early years in Knightsbridge in London , before he moved to Beaconsfield . Neave was sent to St . Ronan ' s School , Worthing , and from there , in 1929 , he went to Eton College . He went on to study jurisprudence at Merton College , Oxford . While at Eton , Neave composed a prize - winning essay in 1933 that examined the likely consequences of Adolf Hitler ' s rise to supreme power in Germany , and Neave predicted then that another widespread war would break out in Europe in the near future . Neave had earlier been on a visit to Germany , and he witnessed the Nazi German methods of grasping political and military power in their hands . When Neave went to Oxford University , he purchased and read the entire written works of the prescient writer Carl von Clausewitz . When Neave was asked why , he answered : " since war [ is ] coming , it [ is ] only sensible to learn as much as possible about the art of waging it " . During 1938 , Neave completed his third - class degree in the study of jurisprudence . By his own admission , while at Oxford University , Neave did only the minimal amount of academic work that was required of him by his tutors . Wartime service . Neave joined the Territorial Army and became an officer of the Royal Artillery in the regular British Army at the beginning of World War II . He was sent to France in February 1940 as part of a searchlight regiment . He was wounded and captured by the Germans at Calais on 23 May 1940 . He was imprisoned at Oflag IX - A / H near Spangenberg and in February 1941 moved to Stalag XX - A near Thorn in German - occupied western Poland . In April 1941 he escaped from Thorn with Norman Forbes . They were captured near Itow while trying to enter Soviet - controlled Poland and were briefly in the hands of the Gestapo . In May , they were both sent to Oflag IV - C ( often referred to as Colditz Castle because of its location ) . Neave made his first attempt to escape from Colditz on 28 August 1941 disguised as a German N . C . O . He did not get out of the castle as his hastily contrived German uniform ( made from a Polish army tunic and cap painted with scenery paint ) was rendered bright green under the prison searchlights . Together with Dutch officer Anthony Luteyn he had a second attempt on 5 January 1942 , again in disguise . Better uniforms and escape route ( they made a quick exit from a theatrical production using the trap door beneath the stage ) got them out of the prison and by train and on foot they travelled to Leipzig and Ulm and finally reached the border to Switzerland near Singen . Via France , Spain and Gibraltar Neave returned to England in April 1942 . Neave was the first British officer escaping from Colditz Castle . He was later recruited as an intelligence agent for MI9 . While at MI9 , he was the immediate superior of Michael Bentine . He also served with the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg , investigating Krupp . As a well - known war hero – as well as a qualified lawyer who spoke fluent German – he was honoured with the role of reading the indictments to the Nazi leaders on trial . He wrote several books about his war experiences including an account of the Nuremberg Trial . Political career . Neave stood at the 1950 election in Thurrock and at Ealing North in 1951 . He was elected for Abingdon in a by - election in June 1953 , but his career was held back by a heart attack he suffered in 1959 . Airey Neave was a Governor of Imperial College between 1963 and 1971 and was a member of the House of Commons select committee on Science and Technology between 1965 and 1970 . Edward Heath , when Chief Whip , was alleged to have told Neave that after he suffered his heart attack his career was finished but in his 1998 autobiography , Heath strongly denied ever making such a remark . He admitted that in December 1974 Neave had told him to stand down for the good of the party . During the final two months of 1974 , Neave had asked Keith Joseph , William Whitelaw and Edward du Cann to stand against Heath , and said that in the case of any of them challenging for the party leadership , he would be their campaign manager . When all three refused to stand , Neave agreed to be the campaign manager for Margaret Thatcher ' s attempt to become leader of the Conservative Party , that was eventually victorious . When Thatcher was elected leader in February 1975 , he was rewarded with the post of head of her private office . He was then appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and was poised to attain the equivalent Cabinet position at the time of his death . In opposition , Neave was a strong supporter of Roy Mason , who took a hard line against both Loyalist and Republican paramilitaries . Neave was author of the new and radical Conservative policy of abandoning devolution if there was no early progress in that regard and concentrating on local government reform instead . This integrationist policy was hastily abandoned by Humphrey Atkins , who became Secretary of State for Northern Ireland , the role Neave had shadowed . Politician Tony Benn records in his diary ( 17 February 1981 ) that a journalist from the " New Statesman " , Duncan Campbell , told him that he had received information from an intelligence agent two years previously that Neave had planned to have Benn assassinated if a Labour Government was elected , James Callaghan resigned and there was a possibility that Benn might be elected Party Leader in his place . Campbell claimed that the agent was ready to give his name and the " New Statesman " was going to print the story . Benn , however , discounted the validity of the story and wrote in his diary : " No one will believe for a moment that Airey Neave would have done such a thing " . However the magazine printed the story on 20 February 1981 , naming the agent as Lee Tracey . Mr . Tracey claimed to have met Neave and was asked to join a team of intelligence and security specialists which would " make sure Benn was stopped " . Tracey planned a second meeting with Neave but Neave was killed before they could meet again . Death . Airey Neave was killed on 30 March 1979 , when a magnetic car bomb fitted with a ball bearing tilt switch exploded under his Vauxhall Cavalier at 2 : 58 pm as he drove out of the Palace of Westminster car park . Both of his legs were blown off and he died in hospital an hour after being freed from the wreckage . The Irish National Liberation Army ( INLA ) , an Irish Republican organisation banned in the United Kingdom under anti - terrorism legislation , admitted responsibility for the killing . Conservative leader Margaret Thatcher led tributes , saying : Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan said : " No effort will be spared to bring the murderers to justice and to rid the United Kingdom of the scourge of terrorism . " The INLA issued a statement regarding the killing in the August 1979 edition of " The Starry Plough " : Neave ' s death came just two days after the vote of no confidence which brought down James Callaghan ' s government and a few weeks before the 1979 general election which brought about a Conservative party victory and Margaret Thatcher came to power as Prime Minister . Neave ' s wife Diana , whom he married on 29 December 1942 , was subsequently elevated to the House of Lords as Baroness Airey of Abingdon . Neave ' s biographer Paul Routledge met a member of the Irish Republican Socialist Party ( the political wing of INLA ) who was involved in the killing of Neave and who told Routledge that Neave " would have been very successful at that job [ Northern Ireland Secretary ] . He would have brought the armed struggle to its knees " . Conspiracy theories . Kevin Cahill , an Irish investigative journalist , claims Neave was on the verge of a massive overhaul of the security services , possibly involving a merger of MI5 and MI6 and arising from his belief in corruption in the security services . Cahill suggests a link between Neave ' s killing , that of Sir Richard Sykes and the attempted murder of Christopher Tugendhat in December 1980 . Cahill claims that Neave would have been head of the combined security services with Sykes and Tugendhat as his deputies , with Sykes responsible for foreign operations and Tugendhat responsible for home operations . Cahill claims to have had a conversation with a drunken Neave on St Patrick ' s Day 1979 in the foyer of the Irish embassy in London . Cahill had left a party and was waiting for a taxi . He saw Neave in the room and introduced himself to him as an admirer . Cahill claims that Neave was inebriated and responded " quite out of the blue " by saying " There are going to be changes here , big changes , soon . There is going to be cleaning of the stables . . . There has been serious corruption . " Neave then said that there was " no use playing games . We have to win . . . We will win when the corruption is sorted out . Count on that . " Cahill found Neave ' s remarks surprising because he seemed internally preoccupied with the UK , with his Northern Ireland brief " almost a sideline " . Cahill also thought that Neave ' s mention of corruption meant Soviet penetration . Whilst working in the House of Commons as Paddy Ashdown ' s research assistant , Cahill claims to have had around six conversations with the security staff there . The most frequent remark was that " everyone knew " the story behind Neave ' s death but that no one could talk about it in detail because it would have been too dangerous . Cahill claims they did not believe INLA killed Neave but that it was an " inside job " . Cahill concluded that Neave was killed by the security services ; MI6 agents working with the CIA because Neave sought to prosecute senior figures in the intelligence establishment for corruption . Another person who did not accept the generally accepted version of events was Enoch Powell , the Ulster Unionist MP . Powell claimed in an interview with " The Guardian " on 9 January 1984 that the Americans had killed Neave , along with Lord Mountbatten and Robert Bradford MP . He claimed the evidence came from a member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary with whom he had a conversation . On 18 October 1986 Powell returned to the subject of Neave ' s death in a speech to Conservative students in Birmingham . He told them that INLA had not killed Neave , but that he had been assassinated by " MI6 and their friends " . Powell claimed Neave ' s Northern Ireland policy had been one of integration with the rest of the UK and that the Americans feared that this process , if implemented by Neave , would have been irreversible . His killing , alleged Powell , was intended to make the British Government adopt a policy more acceptable to America in her aim of a united Ireland within NATO . Media depictions . Neave was portrayed by actor Nicholas Farrell in " The Iron Lady " ( 2011 ) . He was portrayed by actor Geoffrey Pounsett in " Nuremberg " ( 2000 ) .