Bill Deedes

Biography

William Francis Deedes, Baron Deedes, KBE, MC, PC (1 June 1913 – 17 August 2007) was a British Conservative politician, army officer and journalist. He was the first person in Britain to have been both a member of the Cabinet and the editor of a major daily newspaper, The Daily Telegraph. Deedes was born in Hampstead in 1913, the second child and only son of landowner Herbert William Deedes and his wife Melesina Gladys, daughter of Philip Francis Chenevix Trench. His younger sister Margaret Melesina married the 21st Baron FitzWalter. He was brought up in the family home of Saltwood Castle until it was sold in 1925. He was educated at Harrow until after his father, who had struggled to manage the family's wealth for years, suffered heavy financial losses from the Wall Street crash of 1929 which eradicated their remaining fortunes Due to the lack of funds, Deedes was forced to leave school a year early and finish his exams with a tutor. After failing to get into a university, Deedes began his career as a reporter on the Morning Post in 1931, joining The Daily Telegraph when it took over the Post in 1937. Between 1931 and the beginning of the Second World War in 1939, he shared a home in Bethnal Green, with his uncle Wyndham Deedes. Deedes was elected as the Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Ashford in 1950. First serving as a junior minister under Winston Churchill for three years, he later entered Harold Macmillan's Cabinet in 1962 as Minister without Portfolio. He left the Cabinet in 1964, as Minister of Information, and subsequently stood down as an MP at the October 1974 election. Deedes was editor of The Daily Telegraph from 1974 to 1986 and, after he was replaced by Max Hastings, continued his career as a journalist. His tenure was noted for battles with the print unions. Deedes died from bronchopneumonia at his home in Aldington on 17 August 2007, at the age of 94. There is a residential street named for him in the village, called Bill Deedes Way.