Tribute to Sir Edward du Cann: 28 May 1924 — 31 August 2017
3 min read
Lord Spicer fondly recalls his fellow former chair of the 1922 Committee who, despite his notoriety, was always great company
And then there were three: after Edward du Cann’s death on 31 August at the age of 93, there are now three living past/present chairmen of what the papers call “the powerful” 1922 Committee, the Conservative parliamentary party. They are Archie (Lord) Hamilton, Graham Brady and myself.
There is a relatively recent photograph of us taken after we had lunched with du Cann at his club, the Carlton. Edward had been horrified when Graham had drawn out a small camera from his pocket and had asked a member of the club staff to take a snap of the four of us. He nevertheless agreed to pose and the photograph appeared on the back of the excellent recent booklet on the 1922 Committee by Professor Lord Norton.
Edward du Cann was perhaps the best-known 1922 Chairman and at 12 years (1972-84) he was the longest serving. He came close in 1974/75 to using the chairmanship as a platform from which to launch a bid for the leadership of the party.
The cry of “Mr du Cann” from the floor of committee room 14 could often be heard in the corridor outside. It reached something of a crescendo with the intervention of Rear-Admiral Morgan Morgan-Giles, Member for Winchester, who once shouted from the back of the room, “Mr du Cann, I have never before had the honour to address this committee. I do so now with the words ‘pro bono publico no bloody panico’.”
Anyone who wants a fuller story of du Cann can read his obituary in the Daily Telegraph of 6 September. The chronic failure to pay his bills, the multiple mortgages on his properties, the poor management of his funds and those of others – it’s all there. I will stick with the man I knew.
Over the past 20 years or so we have shared the same barber in Westminster as well as membership of a parliamentary lunch club known as the NAAFI (No Ambition And F....ing Interests) Club.
Edward du Cann was a regular attender at the club’s monthly meetings, for which he usually flew in from Cyprus. On these occasions he was always good value.
He often opened his interventions at the lunches with, “My dears,” (Somerset for ladies and gentlemen) “I want to have your collective wisdom, because it is the only wisdom I trust, on the state of the party/Europe/nuclear bomb/above all, the prime minister of the day. I know that we can be frank and wholly honest with each other, etc. etc”.
Edward du Cann was a one-off. There has never been anyone quite like him. Nor will there ever be again.
Lord Spicer is a Conservative peer and former MP. He was chair of the 1922 Committee from 2001-2010
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