About Airey Neave
Airey Neave DSO OBE MC MP was Member of Parliament for Abingdon
from 1953 until his death in March 1979.
He was principal
Conservative spokesman on Northern Ireland and the closest adviser
to Mrs Thatcher since her election as party leader,
whose victory had been planned by him as patiently and resourcefully
as he had planned escapes through occupied Europe and for the
remnants of the Airborne Division trapped at Arnhem during the
War. His
career reached two quite different peaks. First, as a young soldier,
and
second as a distinguished barrister and politician. As a soldier,
he was the first officer to make "the home run" from
Colditz, and the intelligence from this experience brought
about his appointment
to M19, where he was code named "Saturday". His book "Saturday
at MI9" deservedly repeated the publishing success of his story
of the Colditz escape.
When the War ended, he became assistant secretary
of the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, and had
the task of serving indictments
on the Nazi war leaders who had survived Hitler. Another book, "Nuremberg", dealt
with the part he played there.
After the War he turned to politics
and, with Harwell in his constituency, he specialised in
science and technology. He chaired the All Party
Select Committee on Science and Technology in the House of
Commons, and the series of reports that were produced at that time
were
dominated by his specialty in this field, an ability to
balance concern for
scientific advance with concern for its effects.
His reputation
in Parliament was one of pitting himself single handedly
against apparently hopeless odds. He did not wait for the support
of others before he took up a cause that he knew to be right
and just. One such cause was to bring belated justice to the special
prisoners of the Sachsenhausen camp, whose claim to compensation
had been bureaucratically denied. There were many other causes
for which he fought and won.
In the many tributes to his memory,
following his assassination
in 1979, the recurring theme was of his quiet and relentless
courage
and his determined and uncompromising opposition to terrorism.
