Airey Neave
Airey Neave Sheffield Middleton , DSO , OBE , MC (* 23. January 1916 in London , † thirtieth March 1979 ) was a British politician of the Conservative Party .
biography
Neave was educated at Eton College and then studied law at Merton College , Oxford . He joined the British Territorial Army and was sent to France during the Second World War in February 1940 as an officer in a reconnaissance unit . On May 23, 1940, he was wounded near Calais , taken prisoner by the Germans and imprisoned in officers' camp (Oflag) IX near Spangenberg . In February 1941 he was transferred to the main camp (Stalag) XXa near Thorn . In April 1941 he attempted to escape, but was captured again by the Gestapo at Itow when he tried to cross the border to the Soviet-occupied part of Poland. In May he was relocated to Oflag IV-C at Colditz Castle .
On August 28, 1941, Neave attempted to flee again, but it failed because his self-made German uniform was noticed. On January 5, 1942, he managed to escape together with the Dutch officer Anthony Luteyn . By train and on foot, they reached the Swiss border near Singen via Leipzig and Ulm on January 9th . Neave returned to Great Britain via France, Spain and Gibraltar . He was the first British officer to escape from Colditz Castle. Then he worked for the secret service MI9 (support of resistance fighters). In 1947 he was involved in the Krupp trial , one of the Nuremberg trials , where he presented the results of the investigation. Neave wrote numerous books about his wartime experiences.
In the general election in 1950 , Neave initially ran unsuccessfully in the Thurrock constituency , but was then elected in a by-election in Abingdon in 1953 . When Margaret Thatcher took over the chairmanship of the Conservative Party in 1975, Neave was considered one of the most important masterminds. He was initially their private secretary, then became shadow minister for Northern Ireland and was considered the most promising candidate for this ministerial post. A few weeks before the general election in 1979, he was a car bomb of the Irish National Liberation Army killed when he out of the car park of the Palace of Westminster was driving. Members of the Irish National Liberation Army told his biographer Routledge that Neave was considered a strong personality who had successfully suppressed the Irish uprising.
Neave was married to Diana Giffard, later Diana Neave , Baroness Airey of Abingdon, since December 29, 1942 .
In the movie
- In the feature film Nuremberg - In the Name of Humanity (2000), Neave is portrayed by Geoffrey Pounsett .
- Nicholas Farrell plays him in The Iron Lady (2011). Here the assassination attempt on Airey Neave is not shown historically correctly. Thatcher was not in the vicinity of the attack site, but had other obligations.
Fonts (selection)
- Saturday at MI9 - The Classic Account of the WW2 Allied Escape Organization. Leo Cooper Ltd., ISBN 1-84415-038-0 .
- They Have Their Exits - A Classic World War Two Memoir of Action and Escape. Pen and Sword Books Ltd., ISBN 0-85052-865-8 .
- Flames of Calais - A Soldiers Battle 1940. Pen and Sword Books Ltd., ISBN 0-85052-997-2
literature
- Paul Routledge: Public Servant, Secret Agent: The elusive life and violent death of Airey Neave. Fourth Estate, 2002, ISBN 978-1-84115-244-8 .
- Patrick Bishop: The Man Who Was Saturday: The Extraordinary Life of Airey Neave , London: HarperCollins Publishers 2019, ISBN 9780008309046 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Paul Routledge: Public Servant, Secret Agent: The elusive life and violent death of Airey Neave. Fourth Estate. 2002, ISBN 978-1-84115-244-8 , page 360.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Neave, Airey |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Neave, Airey Middleton Sheffield (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British Conservative Party politician, Member of the House of Commons |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 23, 1916 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | London |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 30, 1979 |
| Place of death | London |