HL Deb 18 June 1963 vol 250 cc1173-7
THE EARL OF HOME

My Lords, the Leader of the House is unable to be in his place to-day and sends to your Lordships his apologies and regrets because, in particular, he is unable to be here to pay his personal tribute to Sir Brian Horrocks and to Sir Brian's services over many years to this House.

As your Lordships know, the Office of Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod is some 600 years old and has been filled by many a gallant officer who has served his Sovereign. I think your Lordships will all agree that during the nineteen years in which Sir Brian Horrocks has held this Office he has filled it with rare distinction and, in so far as the duties of the Office allowed, with panache. The origin of the duties was, of course, to keep in order the Knights who waited upon and advised the Sovereign. I do not know whether it is a testimony to Sir Brian's natural authority or to your Lordships' good behaviour and discretion that only once in this nineteen years has he had to exercise his powers to eject somebody—and that was a test not so much of his strength as of his gallantry.

I think your Lordships would like me to say, on behalf of the whole House, that he has added to the esteem and dignity of this ancient charge and we are most grateful to him for that. He has the qualities which go to make a good General: the authority to command respect by virtue of his office and to win the affection of all who served under him. And, like all Generals, he write, hooks. The title of his main work so far has been The Full Life, and even his great modesty, which he showed in that book, could not conceal the great achievements which have been to Sir Brian's credit during all the years of a pretty long and active life. In it I notice he gives a recipe for retirement. He says that any man who has lived a full life must have a private lane down which he can escape to his other and his own world. And his lane, so he says, leads down to the quiet water's edge where a small boat lies at her moorings. May he have many happy sailings in her!And it is a tine and peaceful prospect.

But where Sir Brian is, something generally stirs. He is a soldier who could never be left on the shelf, a sportsman and writer, a televiser who beats all the professionals at their own game, and now he is going to direct a well-known firm of contractors. And so we may comfort ourselves by thinking that Sir Brian is not really a retiring sort of person. I would send him, on behalf of all your Lordships, and on behalf of the Leader of the House, our affection and our thanks for all that he has done, and all our good wishes to him and Lady Horrocks for many years of health and happiness.

2.39 p.m.

EARL ALEXANDER OF HILLSBOROUGH

My Lords, I am very glad to be able on behalf of myself and all my colleagues wholeheartedly to support the tribute which has been so well expressed by the Foreign Secretary. We regret the temporary absence of the Leader of the House. We understand that he has to have some medical treatment. We sincerely hope he will soon be better.

Sir Brian is a man of great popularity. I want him when he goes into other spheres to take with him the sense that he has a right to be popular—and in no sphere has he a better right than in this House. He is popular with all of us. He is really a great person. He has a great career. He does not happen to be Eton or Harrow, but how much more proud he must be, with all the galaxies that come to Eton and Harrow, of the affection of the schoolboys at Upping-ham!He was a lieutenant in the Middlesex Regiment. I wonder, when he once leaves this place, whether he may have doubts about the wisdom of the abolition of Middlesex by the London Government Bill; because the Middlesex Regiment has a great record and has found a great son in himself. Then there was his military career. He was wounded, and decorated, in the First War; a prisoner of war; a student of the Russian language who became a master of it during his incarceration. Then he went into the Second Great War: and what a distinguished career the record books tell us of!To have commanded an armoured division and then a territorial division, and then on two fronts to have commanded four separate armoured corps, is a record of which any lieutenant-general could well be proud, and he carried it all through with great distinction.

In this House he has been the model of courtesy and anxiety to meet the needs and the necessities in regard to which noble Lords in this House so often go to the Gentleman Usher. I have clear personal recollections of the way in which he has helped me from time to time in that respect. I wonder whether he will take away with him the kind of thrill that still remains with me concerning my first visit to the House of Commons. I think of him taking that ceremonial march through the passages into the other place and having the door slammed in his face—knocking to be admitted with a Message either from Royal Commission or the Sovereign to come to this place, and the establishment of the sovereignty of the High Court of Parliament, which was so busily engaged in debate yesterday. These are great features in the life of a man like Sir Brian Horrocks.

Now he is going to a new sphere. I do not know at what age he intends to become a boatman in a quiet water; but certainly he is going to something which is not likely to be quiet, if I understand his new job aright, because he will have something to do with labour relations. But who better able than he, in spirit and experience of the control of men and their guidance, to be able adequately and efficiently to tackle such a job? I value greatly the services which he has given. I do not believe that he is as old as the Foreign Secretary imagines. I seem to remember that he was installed in office in 1948. I cannot yet make that 19 years ago. I hope that the Foreign Secretary has not been "putting years upon him". But I can imagine Sir Brian going to his new job with faith in heart, and a belief that he can do a great deal towards improving labour relations in the country. I wish him and Lady Horrocks the best possible happiness during the rest of his career.

2.46 p.m.

LORD REA

My Lords, there is of course always an element of sadness and of regret when in two days we have to say goodbye to two such valued and admired members of the staff of your Lordships' House to whom we are so much indebted for their great work during their terms of office. When the Royal Family withdrew from living in the Palace of Westminster and left behind the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod to see that we behaved ourselves, I take it that they did not realise what a variety there would be of different and vivid characters who would occupy that office. It is with great regret that we part with such a colourful and popular figure, liked not only by the 100 or 200-odd of your Lordships who attend regularly in this House, but no doubt equally liked by those among the other 700 Members who occasionally come, once a year or once in ten years; liked by his own rather large staff in the Palace of Westminster and, incidentally, by a mere 9 million or so televiewers. They, of course, have been enchanted by his gift of story-telling, by the expressive movement of his hands behind which his handsome face and arresting voice can constantly be discerned. Probably he is one of the best and most acceptable Black Rods in the long history of the Order of the Garter and of your Lordships' House, and we bid him farewell with gratitude for his excellent and Valuable services, and wish him a long and happy life in what I think we should all call his new freedom.

2.48 p.m.

BARONESS WOOTTON OF ABINGER

My Lords, I should not like this occasion to pass without a word being said on behalf of the women Members of your Lordships' House. We seldom discriminate in your Lordships' House on grounds of sex, but on this occasion we have a special obligation and sense of gratitude to the retiring Black Rod. We were received by him with a courtesy and kindness which knew no bounds, and we, in our turn, presented him on occasion with new and delicate problems which perhaps had not in the first instance been envisaged. I myself had to ask him what were the rights of the gentleman who described himself as the "first male Peeress"—I need hardly say that I refer to my husband. He was anxious to know what were the rights of a "male Peeress" in your Lordships' House. I need hardly say that Sir Brian dealt with this problem, not only with kindness and courtesy, but with the wit and understanding which we should have expected from him, and that suitable arrangements were made for what I hope may be a long succession of "male Peeresses" in your Lordships' House. The Foreign Secretary said that "where Sir Brian is something stirs". I am sure that I may say on behalf of all the women Members of your Lordships' House that we are abundantly aware of the truth of that observation.

THE EARL OF HOME

My Lords, perhaps I might be allowed to correct the number of years. I think the true number of years is fourteen.