Sir William Radcliffe van Straubenzee (27 January 1924 – 2 November 1999) was a British Conservative Party politician.

Background

The family name had come to the

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when Philip William Casimir van Straubenzee, a

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captain in the Dutch Blue Guards, came with

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to support the

Jacobite rising of 1745 The Jacobite rising of 1745, also known as the Forty-five Rebellion or simply the '45 ( gd, Bliadhna Theàrlaich, , ), was an attempt by Charles Edward Stuart to regain the British throne for his father, James Francis Edward Stuart. It took ...

. As the Jacobite army headed south into England, he met Jane Turner of

Kirkleatham Kirkleatham is an area of Redcar in the Borough of Redcar and Cleveland in North Yorkshire, England. It is approximately north-northwest of Guisborough, and south of Redcar centre. It was listed in the Domesday Book. The area has a collect ...

. Sir William Turner, who was

Lord Mayor of London The Lord Mayor of London is the mayor of the City of London and the leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded precedence over all individuals except the sovereign and retains various traditional pow ...

in 1669, was born in Kirkleatham. In his will, he had bequeathed a substantial amount of money to his great-nephew, Jane's father Cholmley Turner, a member of parliament for

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, 1727–1741. With marriage blocked by Cholmley Turner, Philip and Jane were forced to

elope Elopement is a term that is used in reference to a marriage which is conducted in a sudden and secretive fashion, usually involving a hurried flight away from one's place of residence together with one's beloved with the intention of getting ma ...

to marry. Becoming a member of the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

, due to his later loyalty to the British Crown, Philip was naturalized as a British citizen by

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in 1759 at the request of

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Early life

William van Straubenzee was the only son of Brigadier Arthur Bowen van Straubenzee DSO MC (the eighth generation of the family to serve in the military), and his wife, Margaret Joan Radcliffe. He had a sister, Vivien Isabel Ruth van Straubenzee (1934-2016). Van Straubenzee was educated at

Westminster School (God Gives the Increase) , established = Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560 , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , head_label = Hea ...

, where under the influence of his friend Anthony Wedgwood Benn he became a youthful

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

Military career

Van Straubenzee's family had a noted military background (eight generations to his father), and Van Straubenzee himself served in his father's regiment, 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 ...

(1942–47), including two years in the

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at staff level. He left the military in 1947 with the rank of Major.

Professional career

Van Straubenzee became a solicitor in 1952, and later a partner in a law firm.

Political career

Van Straubenzee later commented that

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

had "matured" his politics, and he became active in the Conservative Party. Chairman of the London branch of the Young Conservatives from 1949, he became chairman of the Young Conservatives from 1951 until 1953, when he became a governor of the conservative Ashridge think tank. He was awarded an MBE for political services in 1954.

Westminster

Van Straubenzee unsuccessfully contested

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in 1955, after which he was elected to serve as a councillor of Richmond Borough Council 1955–58. He was elected

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(MP) for

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from 1959 to 1987, when he retired and was succeeded by

John Redwood Sir John Alan Redwood (born 15 June 1951) is a British politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wokingham in Berkshire since 1987. A member of the Conservative Party, he was Secretary of State for Wales in the Major governm ...

. David Eccles appointed him as his Parliamentary Private Secretary from 1960 to 1962. In opposition from 1964, he served as spokesman on labour and social services, and then as an education spokesman where his views were heavily influenced by Sir Edward Boyle. Van Straubenzee served in

Edward Heath Sir Edward Richard George Heath (9 July 191617 July 2005), often known as Ted Heath, was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1965 to 1975. Heath a ...

's government as junior higher education minister for Education and Science from 1970 to 1972, under Secretary of State

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...

. He was promoted to Northern Ireland minister from 1972 to 1974, where he fully engaged the

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community and often angered the

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. However, after joining Heath's shadow cabinet in March 1974 as shadow Education Secretary, his avowed support of comprehensive school education brought him into conflict with Norman St John Stevas. The political fight was won by Thatcher and Stevas, who replaced him as Educational spokesperson, whilst Van Straubenzee was moved by Heath to become shadow Defence spokesperson. With his political career blunted, especially after Thatcher replaced Heath as leader in 1975 and sacked him from the shadow cabinet, van Straubenzee focused on his work with the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

and backbench efforts. As a " One Nation" conservative and noted "wet" amongst the Conservative party, his complimentary flat in Lollard's tower of Lambeth Palace became the meeting place for the "wet" dissident Conservative grouping, "The Lollards". Van Straubenzee chaired the Conservative backbench Education Committee from 1979 until he stepped down, and was personally recommended for a Knighthood by Thatcher in 1981. In government documents released in July 2015, van Straubenzee was named in connection to child sexual abuse, but the context of the reference is not known.

Church of England

Van Straubenzee was a member of the

House of Laity The House of Laity is the lower house in the tricameral General Synod of the Church of England legislature. They are responsible for representing the laity of the Church of England in the legislature. They are indirectly elected every 5 years by m ...

from 1965 to 1970, and was elected to the

General Synod of the Church of England The General Synod is the tricameral deliberative and legislative organ of the Church of England. The synod was instituted in 1970, replacing the Church Assembly, and is the culmination of a process of rediscovering self-government for the Church ...

in 1975 serving until 1985. He chaired the Synod's Dioceses Commission from 1978 to 1986, and was appointed by Margaret Thatcher to be the

Second Church Estates Commissioner The Church Commissioners is a body which administers the property assets of the Church of England. It was established in 1948 and combined the assets of Queen Anne's Bounty, a fund dating from 1704 for the relief of poor clergy, and of the Eccle ...

in 1979 (dealing with Anglican Church matters in the House of Commons), a post he held until he stood down in 1987. A progressive within the Anglican and CoE, Van Straubenzee opposed Lord Cranborne's private bill in 1981, designed to allow congregations to continue to use the 1662 ''Book of Common Prayer'', over the recently introduced

Alternative Service Book The ''Alternative Service Book 1980'' (''ASB'') was the first complete prayer book produced by the Church of England since 1662. Its name derives from the fact that it was proposed not as a replacement for the 1662 ''Book of Common Prayer'' (B ...

. During the period in which relations between CoE bishops and the Conservative Government declined, he clashed publicly with the chairman of the Conservative party John Selwyn Gummer (then also a member of the General Synod), over Gummer's open criticisms of the episcopal bench. In 1992 after stepping down from the House of Commons, he chaired a Synod inquiry which recommended that the Prime Minister should lose his right to advise the Queen on senior Church appointments, and that vacancies for bishoprics should be advertised. The recommendation and most of the report was quickly dismissed by senior members of the episcopate.

Personal life

Van Straubenzee never married and had no children.

References

Sources

*''Times Guide to the House of Commons'', 1955, 1966 & 1983

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Van Straubenzee, William 1924 births 1999 deaths English people of Dutch descent People educated at Westminster School, London Royal Artillery officers English Anglicans English solicitors Councillors in Greater London Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Knights Bachelor Members of the Order of the British Empire UK MPs 1959–1964 UK MPs 1964–1966 UK MPs 1966–1970 UK MPs 1970–1974 UK MPs 1974 UK MPs 1974–1979 UK MPs 1979–1983 UK MPs 1983–1987 Politicians awarded knighthoods Northern Ireland Office junior ministers Church Estates Commissioners

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

British Army personnel of World War II