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Falklands Minister - in War and Peace. Death of Cranley Onslow
The British Foreign office Minister who took over responsibility for the Falkland Islands at the height of the 1982 Argentine invasion crisis and for re-development in its aftermath, Lord Onslow of Woking, has died in Britain (on March 13th), at the age of 74.
Cranley Onslow, a Conservative Member of Parliament from 1964 to1997, was appointed Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in April 1982 ,replacing Richard Luce, one of Lord Carrington's Foreign Office team, forced into resignation by the Argentine invasion.Cranley Onslow became a familiar spokesman internationally for the Foreign Office throughout the Conflict, and headed the rehabilitation group from the Foreign Office, Ministry of Defence and Overseas Development , which began the task of planning the rebuilding and development of the Islands immediately afterwards. He announced the Government's acceptance of most of Lord Shackleton's recommendations for this purpose.
He was the first British Minister to visit the Falklands in 1982 after the fighting ceased, and approved an urgently-needed extension of living accommodation by authorising the export of 54 fully furnished Swedish-type Brewster houses for erection in Stanley, twice what the Governor, Sir Rex Hunt, had initially requested.By a remarkable coincidence he was also a descendent of the Royal Navy Officer, Captain Onslow of the frigate Cleo, who nearly 150 years earlier, had hoisted the British flag and re-claimed Britain's sovereignty of the Falkland Islands in 1833, from representatives of the Buenos Aires Government of the United Provinces of the River Plate.
Cranley Onslow was replaced as Minister of State responsible for the Falkland Islands in after Mrs Thatcher won the general election in June 1983 in a surge of her popularity as a result of winning the Falklands war.He subsequently became an influential chairman of the Committee of all Conservative Back-Bench Members of Parliament, until 1992, helping to assess the Party's preference in the leadership contest in which John Major replaced Margaret Thatcher, whom Cranley Onslow personally supported as Prime Minister. He was made a Life Peer in the House of Lords in 1997.
Cranley Onslow served as an Army officer from 1944 until 1948, and later spent several years as a Foreign Office diplomat, serving abroad in Burma. He is survived by a widow and three daughters and a son.
Harold Briley, London
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