§ THE LORD PRIVY SEAL (LORD SHACKLETON)My Lords, with the leave of the House, I rise to pay a tribute to the late Earl Alexander of Tunis, whose death we all mourn.
The death of Field Marshal Lord Alexander removes a piece of British history from our midst. His military career, from the First World War onwards, really typifies the military involvements of this country over a period of thirty years. Those of your Lordships who have had an opportunity to read the lengthy account of his life which appeared in The Times will know that it would be impossible for me in the space of a few remarks to pay a full tribute to this great Irishman who served his country and Britain and the Commonwealth so well. Indeed, the fact that there are other noble Lords who knew him so much better than I did makes me feel that my own remarks should be brief. But that they are brief is in no way an indication of a lack of appreciation; it is rather an understanding of the impossibility of recognising all that he has done.
My Lords, it is hard to think of any great General in the last war who served with such outstanding distinction in so many theatres of war—Dunkirk, Burma, the Middle East, North Africa and, finally, Italy and his appointment as Supreme Allied Commander of the Mediterranean; these really sum up the course of so much of that war.
We also have to take note of Lord Alexander's great success, and the esteem in which he was held, as Governor General of Canada, a post which he held for six years and which was terminated 902 only by his recall to serve, from 1952 to 1954, as Minister of Defence in Sir Winston Churchill's Administration.
Those of your Lordships who knew him will know how much of his success, in the Army and in civilian life, was due to his own personal qualities and charm, and to his outstanding integrity; and those of us who did not know him well instinctively recognised those qualities in him. He sat in our midst in an unobstrusive way. Because of his modesty one was never conscious of the greatness that there was in our presence, and when I heard of his death it was with a sudden feeling of shock that someone whom we had been accustomed to see and to regard as one of our friends and colleagues should have been taken away. It is this event which brings home to us all the greatness of the man, and our sorrow is shared not only by the people of this country but by the people of many other countries. On behalf of the whole House I should like to extend our heartfelt sympathy to his widow and family.
§ 2.40 p.m.
§ LORD CARRINGTONMy Lords, I should like to join in the moving Tribute that the noble Lord the Leader of the House has paid to Lord Alexander of Tunis and from these Benches to send our sympathy to his family. Sometimes on these occasions we have to speak in memory of those whom we knew only slightly or who had long ago ceased to attend this House, but in this case there can be few of your Lordships to whom Lord Alexander was not either a personal friend or a very familiar figure in the House.
His career is much too well known to need recapitulation, and there are many in this House who are much better qualified to comment on it than I am. Not that I think it is necessary, since his position as one of our foremost military commanders is unassailable, and his personal contribution to our victory in the Second World War is universally acknowledged. It is usually the fate of those who are senior officers at the beginning of any war in which Britain is engaged not only to suffer what seem to be the inevitable initial reverses, but to lose their reputations in doing so. But though Lord Alexander was destined to command a Division in the Battle of France 903 and the rearguard at Dunkirk, and subsequently to command in the retreat from Burma, it was a measure of his ability that his reputation as a soldier was enhanced and he came to be regarded as one of our most pre-eminent Generals.
But even after the war, when Lord Alexander had won all the honours which it is possible for a military commander to win, he turned to other spheres and was equally successful in them. Those of your Lordships who were in this House when he was Minister of Defence will remember how, although he clearly was not concerned with politics in the Party sense, he managed, by his straightforward approach and his transparent honesty and his ability, to make a success of one of the most difficult jobs in the Government.
My Lords, to those of us who had the privilege of knowing him a little it was his unpretentious kindness and modesty which most immediately struck one and which, in a sense, belied the immense achievements of his career. But one did not have to know him very well to realise that underneath that seeming gentleness and modesty there was a determination and resolution which were the mainspring of his character. There are many of your Lordships, some his contemporaries, who knew him far better than I did; but I feel proud to have served under him in war time, fortunate to have known him in peace time and grateful that there should have been such a man to serve and help to save this country when he was most needed.
§ LORD BYERSMy Lords, I should like most sincerely to support what has been said by the two noble Lords who have already spoken. The death of the noble Earl, Lord Alexander of Tunis, came as a great shock to many of us: only a short time ago we were congratulating him on his recovery from his recent illness. There are many in this House who knew him well and who would wish to pay him tribute to-day. I had the privilege during the war of working for the noble Viscount, Lord Montgomery of Alamein, and so in the course of that duty I saw a good deal of Field Marshal Lord Alexander. My first meeting with him was at Marble Arch Aerodrome, in the Western Desert, at five o'clock on a filthy morning. In the pitch darkness I had no idea who he was or what his rank. 904 It was only at the end of our breakfast, as dawn was breaking, that the A.D.C. poduced his uniform coat and I realised that I had spent half an hour with "Alex".
What came through to me as a young officer as it came through to a great many people, wherever they met him, was the sum total of his greatness: his greatness as a man and his greatness as a soldier. His quiet confidence was completely infectious. His becoming modesty stemmed from the same self-confidence which inspired his followers with unforgettable loyalty. He knew how to make decisions, without nonsense and without palaver. His presence always seemed to us to give us solidity and a stability when things were a bit too fluid. All this added up to leadership of a very high order. We shall miss him greatly, and our deepest sympathy goes to Lady Alexander and his family.
THE LORD BISHOP OF LINCOLNMy Lords, I am sure that my brother Bishops would wish to join in these tributes which your Lordships have paid to the life and work of Lord Alexander.
§ LORD HARDING OF PETHERTONMy Lords, as one who had the privilege of serving under his command and on his staff in the Western Desert and on the Italian Campaigns, may I add my tribute to those that have been paid by other noble Lords this afternoon to Field Marshal Lord Alexander of Tunis. I know him from personal experience to have been a very fine soldier, a great commander and a firm friend. The keynote of his whole life and character was his outstandingly high sense of duty: duty to his Sovereign and his country, duty to the Government and, above all, duty to his comrades in arms, the men, the soldiers, the troops who were entrusted to his command. In my life he is the one man who has always placed duty first, before his own comfort or convenience or safety, before his own advancement or his own fame. He always placed his duty first; and that, I think, is his highest recommendation to fame as a soldier, a leader, a commander in the British Army.
I think it was Polybius who wrote that, of all the factors which are of influence in war, the spirit of the warrior is the most decisive—or something to that effect. 905 "Alex", as I affectionately call him, was essentially a warrior; and it was his spirit, the spirit of his leadership, that held together the forces of many nations who fought in the Italian campaign and led them successfully to final victory. They knew him and they trusted him; and that was a tremendous asset in that theatre of war where so many nations were represented.
His command experience was unique. He commanded every unit and formation, from platoon to army group, in battle, and he had what often appeared to me to be even an uncanny sense of the battle-field which made him an absolute master of tactics in his earlier days and later on gave him a very full understanding of what all the soldiers thought and what the junior leader had to do. At the same time, he was a stickler for discipline and for military etiquette, modest at all times, yet dignified as well. He never sought publicity for himself in any way. To my mind, he belongs to that band, that very select band, of brave men and noble patriots, dear to God and famous in all ages. I shall always treasure with pride his trust and his confidence, and I should like to associate myself, most sincerely, with expressions of sympathy that will go to his widow and family.
§ LORD ROBERTSON OF OAKRIDGEMy Lords, I had just finished reading the leading article in my morning paper on Field Marshal Lord Alexander of Tunis when the postman brought me a letter telling me that the noble Lord who has just spoken would be paying a tribute to him this afternon and that he thought it would be appropriate if I were to say a few words. If there is anything appropriate about it it is that Lord Harding and I were in partnership together under "Alex" in Italy, he the senior member of the partnership. There was a third member of the partnership who clearly is not here, General Lemnitzer. If I could think of anything better to say than the final words of the leading article I read this morning I would say it. But I think nothing more appropriate could be said by me, as a member of that partnership and as a Member of your Lordships' House:
He remains to us a great soldier about whom there is no controversy.