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Tributes: Earl Jellicoe

My Lords, I was George Jellicoe’s junior Minister back in 1972-73, when he was Leader of the House and responsible for the Civil Service Department. I was lucky, as a fledgling politician, to learn so much from him. He was a heavyweight in Ted Heath’s Cabinet and had also served in the Macmillan and Douglas-Home Governments. Something that has not quite come out is that he had enormous vivacity, liveliness and an enhancing spirit. Given his war record, I always felt that it was a great pity that there was no war somewhere in the world at that time that George could have won. He was devoted to his department and it to him, for one simple reason. He had a characteristic that many people who committed acts of great bravery and courage in fighting in the Second World War had; they evoked enormous devotion and loyalty from those whom they led. That was the case in the department. On the day he resigned, several senior civil servants came to me, including Sir William Armstrong, and expressed their sadness in very emotional terms. They were appalled that he had to go. His resignation was a ricochet of the Lambton affair. I doubt whether a Minister would have to go today. On the night before his resignation, his last public engagement was to speak in the great painted naval hall at Greenwich. There was a fiendish witch-hunt going on; the paparazzi were around him and his family. Most weaker figures would not have turned up that night, but he did. It was fitting that his last speech as a Cabinet Minister was made in the hall so dear both to him and his family. I was lucky and proud to serve George Jellicoe.