William David Ormsby-Gore, 5th Baron Harlech (20 May 1918 – 26 January 1985), known as David Ormsby-Gore until June 1961 and as Sir David Ormsby-Gore from then until February 1964, was a British diplomat and

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

politician.

Early life

William David Ormsby-Gore was born into an

Anglo-Irish Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the establis ...

aristocratic family on 20 May 1918 in

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, B ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, the second son of

William Ormsby-Gore, 4th Baron Harlech William George Arthur Ormsby-Gore, 4th Baron Harlech, (11 April 1885 – 14 February 1964), was a British Conservative politician and banker. Background Harlech, the son of George Ormsby-Gore, 3rd Baron Harlech, and Lady Margaret Gordon, daug ...

, a Conservative politician, and Lady Beatrice Edith Mildred Gascoyne-Cecil. His maternal great-grandfather was British Prime Minister The 3rd Marquess of Salisbury. He was educated at

St Cyprian's School St Cyprian's School was an English preparatory school for boys, which operated in the early 20th century in Eastbourne, East Sussex. Like other preparatory schools, its purpose was to train pupils to do well enough in the examinations (usual ...

Eton College Eton College () is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI of England, Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. i ...

and

New College, Oxford New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as its feeder school, New College is one of the oldest colleges at ...

. A well-known story told of him at Eton is that, when a boy in his house killed himself, the housemaster called the boys together, and asked if any of them had any idea why this should have happened. Ormsby-Gore put up his hand and asked, "Please sir, could it have been the food?" In 1939, he was commissioned into the

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

(

Berkshire Yeomanry The Berkshire Yeomanry was a part time regiment of the British Army formed in 1794 to counter the threat of invasion during the French Revolutionary Wars. It was the Royal County of Berkshire's senior volunteer unit with over 200 years of volunta ...

Field Regiment), served in the '

Phantom Phantom may refer to: * Spirit (animating force), the vital principle or animating force within all living things ** Ghost, the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that can appear to the living Aircraft * Boeing Phantom Ray, a stealthy unm ...

' reconnaissance unit, and worked with airborne and other special units. By the end of the War, he held the rank of

major Major ( commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicato ...

on the general staff. After the war, his father handed over to him all his land, and Ormsby-Gore farmed the 400 acres (1.6 km²) of the Woodhill Estate,

Oswestry Oswestry ( ; ) is a market town, civil parish and historic railway town in Shropshire, England, close to the Welsh border. It is at the junction of the A5, A483 and A495 roads. The town was the administrative headquarters of the Borough ...

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

. In 1948, he was commissioned a Major in the Shropshire Yeomanry, but left in 1950.

Career

Member of Parliament

At the 1950 general election, he was elected

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

for

, which he remained until 1961. Under Prime Minister

Anthony Eden Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, (12 June 1897 – 14 January 1977) was a British Conservative Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1955 until his resignation in 1957. Achieving rapid promo ...

he served briefly, from November 1956 to January 1957, as

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs is a vacant junior position in the British government, subordinate to both the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and since 1945 also to the Minister of State for Foreign Affai ...

; and under Prime Minister

Harold Macmillan Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, (10 February 1894 – 29 December 1986) was a British Conservative statesman and politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963. Caricatured as " Supermac", ...

he was from 1957 to 1961 Minister of State for Foreign Affairs. After the election of U.S. President John F. Kennedy he was appointed British Ambassador to the United States on 18 October 1961. This meant that he had to take the Chiltern Hundreds on 1 June, so that he could resign from the House.

Ambassador to the United States

Ormsby-Gore knew Kennedy well from his time in London, where his father Joseph P. Kennedy had served as American Ambassador. Like Macmillan, Ormsby-Gore was distantly related to Kennedy, but had a closer relationship than did Macmillan with the President-elect and his brother

Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory ...

. Six months after Kennedy took office Ormsby-Gore was in Washington, D.C. Referred to under the Kennedy administration as "our kind of Ambassador", he supplied Kennedy with a stream of advice and

Cuban cigars Cuban cigars are cigars manufactured in Cuba from tobacco grown within that island nation. Historically regarded as among the world's “finest”, they are synonymous with the island's culture and contribute nearly one quarter of the value of a ...

via his diplomatic bag. He was almost a resident at the White House, being more a friend of the family than a mere ambassador. After President Kennedy's assassination there were rumours of a romance between Ormsby-Gore and

Jacqueline Kennedy Jacqueline Lee Kennedy Onassis ( ; July 28, 1929 – May 19, 1994) was an American socialite, writer, photographer, and book editor who served as first lady of the United States from 1961 to 1963, as the wife of President John F. Kennedy. A p ...

. In 1968 he proposed marriage to her, but, she did not accept. Ormsby-Gore was one of the pallbearers at Robert F. Kennedy's funeral along with

Robert McNamara Robert Strange McNamara (; June 9, 1916 – July 6, 2009) was an American business executive and the eighth United States Secretary of Defense, serving from 1961 to 1968 under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. He remains the ...

John Glenn John Herschel Glenn Jr. (July 18, 1921 – December 8, 2016) was an American Marine Corps aviator, engineer, astronaut, businessman, and politician. He was the third American in space, and the first American to orbit the Earth, circling ...

W. Averell Harriman William Averell Harriman (November 15, 1891July 26, 1986), better known as Averell Harriman, was an American Democratic politician, businessman, and diplomat. The son of railroad baron E. H. Harriman, he served as Secretary of Commerce un ...

, C. Douglas Dillon, Kirk Lemoyne Billings (schoolmate of John F. Kennedy),

Stephen Edward Smith Stephen Edward Smith (September 24, 1927 – August 19, 1990) was the husband of Jean Ann Kennedy. He was a financial analyst and political strategist in the 1960 United States presidential campaign of his brother-in-law John F. Kennedy. Early ...

(husband to Jean Ann Kennedy),

David Hackett David Low Hackett (November 12, 1926 – April 23, 2011) was an American official. Born in Dedham, Massachusetts, Hackett was appointed by President John F. Kennedy to head the President's Committee on Juvenile Delinquency and Youth Crime. La ...

Jim Whittaker James W. Whittaker (born February 10, 1929), also known as Jim Whittaker, is an American mountaineer and mountain guide. Born and raised in Seattle, Washington, on May 1, 1963 he became the first American to reach the summit of Mount Everest as a ...

and

John Seigenthaler John Lawrence Seigenthaler ( ; July 27, 1927 – July 11, 2014) was an American journalist, writer, and political figure. He was known as a prominent defender of First Amendment rights. Seigenthaler joined the Nashville newspaper ''Th ...

. Under the

Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...

administration relations were more formal but remained excellent; and Ormsby-Gore maintained his position after the Labour government took power in Britain in 1964. A fierce opponent of oil-barrel politics, Ormsby-Gore's terse dismissal of the phenomenon ran: "It would indeed be a tragedy if the history of the human race proved to be nothing more than the story of an ape playing with a box of matches on a petrol dump." The extent of his influence over the Kennedy administration is disputed. Unable to persuade the American government to agree with the British line over

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the north and Oman to the northeast and ...

and the Congo, or to proceed with either a negotiated settlement with Soviet premier

Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...

over Berlin or the

Skybolt The Douglas GAM-87 Skybolt (AGM-48 under the 1962 Tri-service system) was an air-launched ballistic missile (ALBM) developed by the United States during the late 1950s. The basic concept was to allow US strategic bombers to launch their weapons ...

ballistic missile programme, he nevertheless played a significant role in the

Cuban Missile Crisis The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis (of 1962) ( es, Crisis de Octubre) in Cuba, the Caribbean Crisis () in Russia, or the Missile Scare, was a 35-day (16 October – 20 November 1962) confrontation between the United S ...

and ensured that Britain's views were taken into account by the American government. The friendships of Ormsby-Gore and Macmillan with John F. Kennedy helped secure the first Test-Ban Treaty in 1963. Macmillan and Ormsby-Gore had been attempting to achieve a test-ban treaty with the Russians for the past ten years, and won Kennedy over through letters from Macmillan and frank discussions between Ormsby-Gore and Kennedy. They convinced him to act like a statesman and conclude Test-ban treaties with Russia and not fear being branded as an appeaser by political opponents in the United States. Ormsby-Gore was a participant in what is referred to as a "twenty-five year conversation to do with the role of a leader in a democratic society". He encouraged Kennedy to remain focused on issues relevant to the world and the future, rather than attempting to protect himself politically. According to the Duchess of Devonshire, who travelled with the British delegation to Kennedy's funeral in November 1963, Macmillan's successor as Prime Minister

Alec Douglas-Home Alexander Frederick Douglas-Home, Baron Home of the Hirsel (; 2 July 1903 – 9 October 1995), styled as Lord Dunglass between 1918 and 1951 and being The 14th Earl of Home from 1951 till 1963, was a British Conservative politician who s ...

had wanted to appoint Ormsby-Gore as

Foreign Secretary The secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, known as the foreign secretary, is a Secretary of State (United Kingdom), minister of the Crown of the Government of the United Kingdom and head of the Foreign, Commonwe ...

, but

R. A. Butler Richard Austen Butler, Baron Butler of Saffron Walden, (9 December 1902 – 8 March 1982), also known as R. A. Butler and familiarly known from his initials as Rab, was a prominent British Conservative Party politician. ''The Times'' obituary ...

had insisted on having this post as a condition of serving under Home. After Kennedy's assassination, Ormsby-Gore became involved in a relationship with his widow Jacqueline, going on vacation with her in Cambodia. He proposed marriage to her in 1967 and was turned down. In 1968, when she married the Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis, Lord Harlech was opposed and wrote to her asking her to change her mind.

Later life

Ormsby-Gore retired as ambassador in 1965, a year after his father died, and took his seat in the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminst ...

as Lord Harlech, briefly also holding the position of deputy chairman of the Conservative Party. He also had a successful career as a television executive, founding HTV, and served as president of the

British Board of Film Classification The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC, previously the British Board of Film Censors) is a non-governmental organisation founded by the British film industry in 1912 and responsible for the national classification and censorship of ...

. He had an active interest in the avant-garde, and for nearly ten years, beginning in 1969, was patron of the

Institute for Research in Art and Technology The Institute for Research in Art and Technology (IRAT, also known as New Arts Lab; Robert Street Arts Lab) was founded in London in 1969 by a group of artists and activists including painter/author Pamela Zoline, video Pioneer John Hopkins, pain ...

. In 1971–1972, he was a deputy chairman of the

Pearce Commission The Commission on Rhodesian Opinion, also known as the Pearce Commission, was a British commission set up in 1971 by Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary Sir Alec Douglas-Home to test the acceptability of a proposed constitutional settlement in Rhod ...

Personal life

On 9 February 1940, Lord Harlech married Sylvia Lloyd Thomas (1920–1967) daughter of Hugh Lloyd Thomas,

Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary An envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, usually known as a minister, was a diplomatic head of mission who was ranked below ambassador. A diplomatic mission headed by an envoy was known as a legation rather than an embassy. Under the ...

to France between 1935 and 1938, and Guendaline Ada Bellew. Before Lady Harlech's death in an automobile accident on 30 May 1967, they had five children: * Julian Hugh Ormsby-Gore (1940–1974), who died of gunshot wounds, an apparent suicide. * Jane Teresa Denyse Ormsby-Gore (b. 1942), who was said to have had an affair with

Mick Jagger Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and one of the founder members of the rock band the Rolling Stones. His ongoing songwriting partnershi ...

during the 1960s; some consider the

Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...

song " Lady Jane" to be about her. She married

Michael Rainey Michael Sean O'Dare Rainey (21 January 1941 – 29 January 2017) was an Australian-born British fashion designer, best known for his 1960s London boutique, '' Hung On You''. Early life He was the son of Sean Rainey and Joyce Marion Wallace (1923� ...

in 1966 (div. 1984) and lived at Brogyntyn Home Farm,

. * Victoria Mary Ormsby-Gore (b. 1946). * Alice Magdalen Sarah Ormsby-Gore (1952–1995), who was the girlfriend of

Eric Clapton Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is often regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s list of ...

from 1969-1974. She died of a

heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a potent opioid mainly used as a recreational drug for its euphoric effects. Medical grade diamorphine is used as a pure hydrochloride salt. Various white and brow ...

overdose in 1995. * Francis David Ormsby-Gore, 6th Baron Harlech (1954–2016), who married Amanda Jane Grieve (b. 1959), daughter of Alan Grieve. In 1968, Lord Harlech proposed to the widowed

, whom he had been friends with since before her husband's assassination. Jacqueline Kennedy declined his offer of marriage in a letter, writing: "If ever I can find some healing and some comfort — it has to be with somebody who is not part of all my world of past and pain ... I can find that now if the world will let us." She later married

Aristotle Onassis Aristotle Socrates Onassis (, ; el, Αριστοτέλης Ωνάσης, Aristotélis Onásis, ; 20 January 1906 – 15 March 1975), was a Greek-Argentinian shipping magnate who amassed the world's largest privately-owned shipping fleet and wa ...

. On 11 December 1969, Lord Harlech married American

socialite A socialite is a person from a wealthy and (possibly) aristocratic background, who is prominent in high society. A socialite generally spends a significant amount of time attending various fashionable social gatherings, instead of having traditio ...

Pamela Colin, daughter of a

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

top corporate lawyer, herself a London resident editor of ''

Vogue Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Australia'', an Australian fashion magazine ** ''Vogue China'', ...

'' and then food editor of the ''

British Vogue British ''Vogue'' is a British fashion magazine published based in London since autumn 1916. It is the British edition of the American magazine ''Vogue'' and is owned and distributed by Condé Montrose Nast. British ''Vogue'' editor in 2012 c ...

''. The wedding was attended by

Princess Margaret Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, (Margaret Rose; 21 August 1930 – 9 February 2002) was the younger daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and the younger sister and only sibling of Queen Elizabeth ...

, the

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ran ...

and Duchess of Devonshire, the Earl and Countess of Drogheda, the

Earl Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. The title originates in the Old English word ''eorl'', meaning "a man of noble birth or rank". The word is cognate with the Scandinavian form ''jarl'', and meant "chieftain", particular ...

and Countess of Airlie, The Countess Gowrie, Lord and Lady David Cecil, Sir Fitzroy Maclean, J. J. Astor and

Michael Astor The Hon. Michael Langhorne Astor (10 April 1916 – 28 February 1980) was a British Conservative Party politician. Early life Michael Astor was born on 10 April 1916. He was the fourth child of Waldorf Astor, 2nd Viscount Astor, and Nancy Wit ...

. They had one daughter: * Pandora Beatrice Ormsby-Gore (b. April 1972)

Death

Lord Harlech was seriously injured in a car crash at

Montford Bridge Montford Bridge is a village in Shropshire, England, and also the name of the bridge in that village. It lies on the River Severn and is close to the town of Shrewsbury. Most of the village is in the Montford parish, but some is covered by t ...

near

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'Sh ...

on the evening of 25 January 1985 and died at the

Royal Shrewsbury Hospital The Royal Shrewsbury Hospital is a teaching hospital in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. It forms the Shrewsbury site of the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, serving patients from Shropshire (including Telford and Wrekin) and Powys, i ...

the following morning, aged 66. Senator

Edward Kennedy Edward Moore Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Massachusetts for almost 47 years, from 1962 until his death in 2009. A member of the Democratic ...

, Jacqueline Onassis and other Kennedy family members attended his funeral and interment in

Llanfihangel-y-traethau Llanfihangel-y-traethau ("St. Michael's on the Beaches") was a parish in Ardudwy, Gwynedd, north-west Wales centred on a church of the same name in the village of Ynys. The original parish church was built in the 12th century on a tidal island. La ...

. He was succeeded in the barony by his second and only surviving son, Francis.

In popular culture

Ormsby-Gore was portrayed by

Peter Donat Peter Donat (born Pierre Collingwood Donat; January 20, 1928 – September 10, 2018) was a Canadian-American actor. Early life Pierre Collingwood Donat was born in Kentville, Nova Scotia, Canada, the son of Marie (née Bardet) and Philip Ernst ...

in the 1974 television play ''

The Missiles of October ''The Missiles of October'' is a 1974 docudrama made-for-television play about the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962. The title evokes the 1962 book ''The Guns of August'' by Barbara Tuchman about the missteps amongst the great powers and the ...

'', which was about the October 1962

Honours and arms

Honours and Crown appointments

Ormsby-Gore was appointed to be a Deputy Lieutenant of

on 12 April 1961. As the

British Ambassador to the United States The British Ambassador to the United States is in charge of the British Embassy, Washington, D.C., the United Kingdom's diplomatic mission to the United States. The official title is His Majesty's Ambassador to the United States of America. T ...

, he was, on 29 June 1961, appointed to the

Order of St Michael and St George The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George IV, George IV, Prince of Wales, while he was acting as prince regent for his father, George III, King George III. ...

as a Knight Commander (KCMG). In 1962, he was appointed to the Order of St John as a Knight (KStJ).

Coat of arms

Notes

References

* Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). ''Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage'' (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990, * * * * Leaming, Barbara. “Jack Kennedy: The Education of a Statesman” (2006). W.W.Norton & Company,Inc. Numerous references.

External links

The U.S. Government's Biographical File on Sir David Ormsby-Gore (December 1962)
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Harlech, David Ormsby-Gore, 5th Baron 1918 births 1985 deaths Alumni of New College, Oxford Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to the United States 5 British Army personnel of World War II British television executives Burials in Wales Ormsby-Gore, David Diplomatic peers

David David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Ministers in the Eden government, 1955–1957 Ministers in the Macmillan and Douglas-Home governments, 1957–1964 People educated at Eton College People educated at St Cyprian's School People from Oswestry Road incident deaths in England Royal Artillery officers Shropshire Yeomanry officers Ormsby-Gore, David Ormsby-Gore, David Ormsby-Gore, David Ormsby-Gore, David Harlech, B5 Younger sons of barons 20th-century British businesspeople Welsh landowners