Sir John William Frederic Nott (1 February 1932 – 6 November 2024) was a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Defence from 1981 to 1983 (during the Falklands War). A member of the National Liberal (until 1968) and Conservative parties, Nott served as Member of Parliament (MP) for St Ives from 1966 to 1983.

Early life

Nott was born in Bromley, south-east London (part of Kent until 1965), to Richard Nott, a rice broker from a military family, and Phyllis Francis,

Ministerial career

Nott served in the government of Edward Heath as Minister of State at the Treasury.

In his white paper Command 8758 "The Falkland Campaign: The Lessons", Nott announced a major rebuilding programme costing around £1 billion to replace all the ships, Harrier aircraft and helicopters lost during the Falklands War, including the building of five new Type 22 frigates. He also closed Chatham Dockyard and ended the mid-life modernisation of old frigates. He took through Parliament the upgrading of the nuclear deterrent to the current Trident system (D5).

Business career

From 1985 to 1989 Nott was chairman and chief executive of Lazard Brothers. This coincided with the cabinet crisis on the future of Westland Helicopters, which severely rocked the Thatcher government. Lazard Brothers acted for Westland against Michael Heseltine's proposal for a European consortium. Among the other well-publicised events that occurred while Nott was at Lazard was the takeover of Guinness. He also served as chairman of Hillsdown Holdings, a multinational food company, and of the Canadian firm Maple Leaf Foods, and was deputy of Royal Insurance. In addition, he was an adviser to APAX Partners and Freshfields.

Books

Nott published his autobiography, Here Today, Gone Tomorrow, in 2002. Other works include: Mr Wonderful Takes a Cruise (2004), Haven't We Been Here Before (2007), Mr Wonderful Seeks Immortality (2014) and Memorable Encounters (2018).

Personal life

In 1959 Nott married Miloska Sekol, whom he met at the University of Cambridge. In 2016 he had criticised the "poisoned EU debate" in the Conservative Party and suspended his party membership until there was a change of leadership.

Nott spent much of his retirement restoring his farm in Cornwall. He died on 6 November 2024, at the age of 92.

Nott was interviewed about the rise of Thatcherism for the 2006 BBC TV documentary series Tory! Tory! Tory!.

He was portrayed by Clive Merrison in the 2002 BBC production of Ian Curteis's controversial The Falklands Play, and by Angus Wright in the film The Iron Lady.

Published works

See also

  • "Rejoice", a 1982 remark made by Margaret Thatcher following a statement read by Nott

References

Works cited

Further reading

  • Thatcher's Class of '79

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