HL Deb 20 October 1966 vol 277 cc122-4

3.18 p.m.

THE LORD PRIVY SEAL (THE EARL OF LONGFORD)

My Lords, I beg to move the Motion standing in my name on the Order Paper. The House will not require me to pay a tribute to the noble Lord, Lord Lindgren, and the noble Baroness, Lady Stocks. I am sure that in the eyes of us all they will be most suitable members, if the House decides to place them on this Select Committee. Nor will the House expect me to say anything about the noble Baroness, Lady Wootton of Abinger, who has had to resign her position on the Committee owing to other pressing work. Her standing in this House is secure. But perhaps the House will feel it proper for me to say a word about the noble Lord, Lord Haire of White abbey, who died quite recently.

This is not the occasion to pay a formal tribute to the noble Lord. He died while on very active public service in the United States, after he had been doing other work of urgent importance in Aden, and I feel that so many of us have known him in one House or the other that your Lordships would not wish to allow his passing to occur without any comment. I realise that he was a valued friend of very many who have known him in the past and was winning an estimable position in this House in the short while that he had been here. But, above all, the manner of his death, I think, illustrates the kind of life he always led. He was a man who never spared himself throughout his life, whether he was winning First-Class degrees at university, serving in the Royal Air Force, in the House of Commons or, later on, in your Lordships' House. He was one who never spared himself in the public interest and I know we shall always think of him as such. It is, I hope, proper to suggest that we should all wish to send a message of sincere sympathy to his widow and family.

Moved, That the Lord Lindgren and the Baroness Stocks be proposed to the House as members of the Select Committee in place of the late Lord Haire of Whiteabbey and the Baroness Wootton of Abinger.—(The Earl of Longford.)

LORD ROYLE

My Lords, I wonder whether I might be forgiven if I say, very briefly and sincerely, a word in support of what my noble friend has just said. John Haire and I were very close friends in another place for some years, and the renewal of the friendship in this House was a great thing for me. As my noble friend the Leader of the House hay said, he died in the course of public work. Having spent some days in Aden on direct Government business, he was in America on semi-Government business when he was struck down. I want to say for myself that I shall miss him very much. He died far too young.

LORD HAR LECH

My Lords, I would echo the tributes that have been paid by the noble Earl the Leader of the House and the noble Lord, Lord Royle, to Lord Haire of White-abbey. I had the privilege of knowing him in both Houses. As the noble Lord, Lord Royle, has said, he was still a comparatively young man, and I think that our recollection of him in this House as late as this summer was of somebody in full vigour, who was likely to make a very real contribution to this House. We mourn his loss. His death was a great shock to all in your Lordships' House.

LORD OGMORE

My Lords, I would associate my noble friends and myself with the tributes that have been paid to the noble Lord, Lord Haire of White-abbey. He was a personal friend of my wife and myself for many years. After he lost his seat in another place in 1951, he took up a new business with resource, energy and imagination and made a great success of it. I am sure that if he had had longer time in this House, we should have seen the great qualities that he brought to bear, both in public and in private life. His death is a real loss to our deliberations in this House. I should like to be associated with the noble Earl the Leader of the House in sending a message of our sympathy to Lady Haire.

LORD SEGAL

My Lords, as the one Member of this House who was privileged to accompany Lord Haire of Whiteabbey on his last visit to Aden and Bahrein, I should like to associate myself very deeply with the remarks that have been made. To so many of us he was the gayest of companions and the most generous of friends, and it seems almost incredible that he should have been struck down at the height of his powers. To those of us who mourn his loss deeply, it is at least some consolation to know that he had no foreboding at all of the imminence of his end. I would associate myself with the expression of sympathy from this House to his wife and family.

On Question, Motion agreed to.