Born 1916. Obtained a law degree at Oxford. Joined the army and was wounded at Calais in 1940. Became the first British Officer to escape from Colditz, and thereafter was involved in support of the French Resistance for which he was awarded the Croix de Guerre (other decorations: DSO, OBE, MC, Dutch Order of Orange Nassau, American Bronze Star). Neave was a member of the War Crimes team at the Nuremberg Trials in 1946. He was elected as a Conservative representative in 1951, and helped Margaret Thatcher depose Edward Heath as party leader in 1975. When the Conservatives came to power in 1979 Neave was due to be appointed Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. He was instead murdered, a act initially claimed by the IRA but later by the INLA, in a car bomb attack within the grounds of the House of Commons in March 1979.

Airey Neave wrote a good and 'early' account of his time in and out of Colditz entitled They Have Their Exits, which my eldest son and I read a few years ago. There are also the autobiographical Saturday at M.I.9 (1969, Hodder & Stoughton, ISBN 0340025972) and The Flames of Calais (1976, Hodder and Stoughton, ISBN 034010533X). -- Martin Noutch

The first biography of Neave, apart from the autobiographical works above, the first of which I delighted in as a young teenager, is Public Servant, Secret Agent, by Paul Routledge, published earlier this year. Reading this book crystalized three possible theses about Neave for me, based on the Heros, Villains And Mystery Men model:

• Paul Routledge presents Neave As Tainted Mystery Man
• Ted Heath would say, albeit privately to senior newspaper editors, Neave As Unscrupulous Shitbag
• Richard Drake on the other hand (and many that knew him) would view Neave As Diffident Hero.

They aren't the only theses but they provide a fair range and could make for some interesting pages. -- Richard Drake

He was certainly shadow on Northern Ireland but crucially he was assassinated the day after Thatcher had won the no confidence vote against James Callaghan and was thus certain, according to the opinion polls, to become the next Prime Minister. So Neave never took up the position in the Cabinet proper. The person he had mentored for the last five years was deprived of him at an absolutely key juncture, before either of them had had any chance to show what line they would really take on Ireland (but my hunch is that Neave would have been fearsomely effective in driving a wedge between terrorists and the populations tacitly supporting them, as he worked hard for social justice as well as effective security). As for UK democracy, this murder could really have been a most deadly body-blow, subject only to the iron characteristics of the one left up to pick up the pieces. A baptism of blood that had as deep an impact on me as any other murder I remember in my lifetime. For by this time I thought I had other reasons to be praying for Thatcher, Neave, Joseph and the rest. -- Richard Drake

The claims about Northern Ireland were discussed further in Thatcher And Ireland

They aren't the only theses but they provide a fair range and could make for some interesting pages.

Unfortunately my knowledge about Neave is pretty limited and I couldn't begin to say which, if any or all other the above mentioned categories he'd fall into. Thus I may have Nothing To Say -- Martin Noutch

Yes indeed. I was aware of this fourth catch-all category for Airey Neave: not enough knowledge or indeed interest in the subject to have a thesis at all. Thanks for the honesty Martin. But I would be extremely interested in your impressions, just from They Have Their Exits. Think of yourself as an amateur, but one whose opinion is valued. Do you think diffident is a good adjective for Neave, for instance? -- Richard Drake

I'm going to have to re-read it again to answer this I think! However, I will raise here Enoch Powell's idea about Neave's death. Powell controversially claimed in 1986 that Neave had not been murdered by the INLA 'but by 'high contracting parties' made up of MI6 and their friends'. He was referring back in part to earlier comments made in 1984 when he had said that that the CIA had been responsible for the assassination of Mountbatten, and that the two murdered MPs, Airey Neave and Robert Bradford, had both been victims of an American conspiracy. Details in Like The Roman by Simon Heffer. -- Martin Noutch