View source for Christopher Soames

{{EngvarB|date=May 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2021}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix    = The Right Honourable
| name                = The Lord Soames
| honorific-suffix    = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|GCMG|GCVO|CH|CBE|PC}}
| image               = Christopher Soames (cropped).jpg
| alt                 = Soames, 45, in a monochrome photograph
| caption             = Soames in 1966
| office              = Governor of Southern Rhodesia
| monarch             = Elizabeth II
| term_start          = 11 December 1979
| term_end            = 18 April 1980
| predecessor         = {{Plainlist}}
* Humphrey Gibbs (1969)
* Josiah Zion Gumede{{ref label|Zimbabwe1|nb 1}}
{{endplainlist}}
| successor           = Canaan Banana{{ref label|Zimbabwe2|nb 2}}
| office1             = Vice-President of the European Commission
| president1          = [[François-Xavier Ortoli]]
| term_start1         = 6 January 1973
| term_end1           = 5 January 1977
| office2             = European Commissioner for External Relations
| president2          = François-Xavier Ortoli
| term_start2         = 6 January 1973
| term_end2           = 5 January 1977
| predecessor2        = [[Jean-François Deniau]]
| successor2          = Wilhelm Haferkamp
| ambassador_from3    = Her Majesty's
| country3            = France
| term_start3         = September 1968
| term_end3           = 27 October 1972
| predecessor3        = Patrick Reilly
| successor3          = Edward Tomkins
{{collapsed infobox section begin |cont=yes |Ministerial offices
 |titlestyle=border:1px dashed lightgrey;}}{{Infobox officeholder |embed=yes
| office              = {{enum|Leader of the House of Lords|Lord President of the Council}}
| primeminister       = [[Margaret Thatcher]]
| term_start          = 5 May 1979
| term_end            = 14 September 1981
| predecessor         = {{ubl|The Lord Peart (Lords)|Michael Foot (Council)}}
| successor           = {{ubl|The Baroness Young (Lords)|Francis Pym (Council)}}
| office1             = Shadow Foreign Secretary
| leader1             = [[Edward Heath]]
| term_start1         = 11 November 1965
| term_end1           = 13 April 1966
| predecessor1        = [[Reginald Maudling]]
| successor1          = [[Alec Douglas-Home]]
| office2             = Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
| primeminister2      = {{ubl|Harold Macmillan|Alec Douglas-Home}}
| term_start2         = 27 July 1960
| term_end2           = 16 October 1964
| predecessor2        = John Hare
| successor2          = Fred Peart
| office3             = Secretary of State for War
| primeminister3      = Harold Macmillan
| term_start3         = 6 January 1958
| term_end3           = 27 July 1960
| predecessor3        = John Hare
| successor3          = John Profumo
| office4             = Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty
| primeminister4      = Harold Macmillan
| term_start4         = 9 January 1957
| term_end4           = 6 January 1958
| predecessor4        = George Ward
| successor4          = Robert Allan
| office5             = Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Air
| primeminister5      = Anthony Eden
| term_start5         = 6 April 1955
| term_end5           = 9 January 1957
| predecessor5        = George Ward
| successor5          = Ian Orr-Ewing
{{collapsed infobox section end}}
}}
{{collapsed infobox section begin |last=yes |Parliamentary offices
 |titlestyle=border:1px dashed lightgrey;}}{{Infobox officeholder |embed=yes
| office              = Member of the House of Lords
| status              = Lord Temporal
| term_label          = Life peerage
| term_start          = 19 April 1978
| term_end            = 16 September 1987
| parliament1         = United Kingdom
| constituency_MP1    = Bedford
| term_start1         = 23 February 1950
| term_end1           = 10 March 1966
| predecessor1        = Thomas Skeffington-Lodge
| successor1          = Brian Parkyn
{{collapsed infobox section end}}
}}
| birth_name          = Arthur Christopher John Soames
| birth_date          = 
| birth_place         = Penn, Buckinghamshire, England
| death_date          = 
| death_place         = Odiham, Hampshire, England
| resting_place       = St Martin's Church, Bladon
| party               = Conservative
| spouse              = 
| relatives           = [[Winston Churchill]] (father‑in‑law)
| children            = 5, including Nicholas, Emma and Rupert
| parents             = Arthur Granville Soames (father)
| education           = Eton College
| alma_mater          = Royal Military College, Sandhurst
| footnotes           = {{Plainlist |indent=0.6 |style=text-align:left;}}
* n.b.<sup>1</sup>&nbsp;{{note|Zimbabwe1||as President of Zimbabwe Rhodesia}}
* n.b.<sup>2</sup>&nbsp;{{note|Zimbabwe2||as President of Zimbabwe}}
{{endplainlist}}
}}

'''Arthur Christopher John Soames, Baron Soames''', {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=small|commas=on|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<!-- In 1934. --> Charles Rhys (later <!-- From 1956. -->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 1977–79, and a director of the Nat West Bank 1978–79.

== Family ==
[[File:May Churchill, Bestanddeelnr 902-0428.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Christopher and Mary Soames in Lenzerheide, February 1947]]
Lord Soames married Mary Churchill, the youngest child of [[Winston Churchill|Winston]] and Clementine Churchill, on 11 February 1947. They had five children:

{{flowlist|
* 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).
}}

== Death ==
[[File:Bladon, Oxfordshire - St Martin's Church - churchyard, grave of Prime Minister Churchill's daughters.jpg|thumb|upright|Christopher and Mary Soames' grave at St Martin's Church, Bladon, in 2015]]

Lord Soames died from pancreatitis aged 66. 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 ==
{{Infobox COA wide
|image = [[File:Coronet of a British Baron.svg|centre|150px]][[File:Soames Escutcheon.png|centre|200px]]
|escutcheon = Gules a chevron Or between in chief two mallets erect of the second and in base two wings conjoined in lure Argent.
|crest = In front of a rising sun Proper upon a lure Gules feathered Argent fesswise a falcon belled Or.
|motto = Vilius Virtutibus Aurum}}

== Bibliography ==
{{refbegin|22em}}
* {{Cite book
  | last       = Campbell
  | first      = John
  | url        = https://archive.org/details/pistolsatdawntwo0000camp/13960/t6wx5mm07
  | title      = Pistols at Dawn: Two Hundred Years of Political Rivalry from Pitt and Fox to Blair and Brown
  | date       = 2010
  | publisher  = Vintage
  | isbn       = 978-1-84595-091-0
  | location   = London
  | url-access = registration
  | oclc       = 489636152
  }}
* {{cite book
  | last      = Jago
  | first     = Michael
  | title     = Rab Butler: The Best Prime Minister We Never Had?
  | publisher = Biteback
  | year      = 2015
  | isbn      = 978-1-84954-920-2
  | location  = London
  }}
* {{cite book
  | editor-last  = Mosley
  | editor-first = Nicholas
  | title        = Debrett's Handbook 1982: Distinguished People in British Life
  | year         = 1982
  | publisher    = Debrett's Peerage Limited
  | location     = London
  | isbn         = 978-0-905649-38-2
  }}
* {{cite book
  | last      = Sanderson
  | first     = Claire
  | title     = Perfide Albion ? L'affaire Soames et les arcanes de la diplomatie britannique
  | language  = fr
  | location  = Paris
  | publisher = Publications de la Sorbonn
  | year      = 2011
  | isbn      = 978-2-85944-665-9
  }}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{Commons|Christopher Soames}}

*[https://web.archive.org/web/20000815232857/http://www.time.com/time/europe/timetrails/zimbabwe/zi042880.html Time:Festive Birth of a Nation (Zimbabwe)]
*[http://www.maximiliangenealogy.co.uk/maximilia/pafg346.htm#22769 Maximilian Genealogy Master Database 2000]

{{Thatcher Ministry}}

{{PPSs to the Prime Minister|state=autocollapse}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Soames, Christopher}}