Denis Winston Healey, Baron Healey
CH
,
MBE
,
PC
(30 August 1917 – 3 October 2015) was a
British
Labour politician
. He was
Secretary of State
for
Defence
from 1964 to 1970 and
Chancellor of the Exchequer
from 1974 to 1979.
Healey was born in
Mottingham
,
Kent
, and moved with his family to
Keighley
in the
West Riding of Yorkshire
when he was five years old.
[1]
He was given the middle name "Winston" after
Winston Churchill
, who was an important politician at the time Denis was born.
[2]
Healey was one of three children. Their father was an
engineer
who had worked his way up by taking extra lessons at
night school
.
Healey went to
Bradford Grammar School
, and in 1936 he won a type of
scholarship
known as an "
exhibition
", which gave him enough money to take a degree at
Balliol College, Oxford
. At Oxford University he got involved in politics, and he joined the
Communist Party of Great Britain
in 1937. In 1939, not liking the party's policies, he changed his mind. From that time on, he supported the
Labour Party
, even though one of his best friends at university,
Edward Heath
, supported the
Conservative Party
.
After getting his degree, Healey joined the
Royal Engineers
, and served in the British forces in several countries during
World War II
. He took an important part in the
Battle of Anzio
, towards the end of the war. After the war, he joined the Labour Party, and made an important speech to the Labour Party conference in 1945, shortly before the
United Kingdom general election, 1945
.
In February 1952, Healey became the
Member of Parliament
for
Leeds South East
. He supported
Hugh Gaitskell
, the leader of the Labour Party. When Gaitskell died in 1963, Healey became a supporter of
Harold Wilson
. When Labour won the
1964 election
Healey was given the job of
Secretary of State for Defence
. Labour lost power in 1970, but Healey was given the job of
Shadow Chancellor
in April 1972.
When Labour won a general election in March 1974 and came back into power, Healey became
Chancellor of the Exchequer
in March 1974. When Harold Wilson resigned as Prime Minister in 1976, Healey was one of those who hoped to take over, but he was not chosen. He continued in the job of Chancellor of the Exchequer when
James Callaghan
took over as Prime Minister.
Healy married
Edna Edmunds
in 1945. Together, they had three children. They lived in
Alfriston
,
Sussex
. Edna died in 2010.
On 14 June 1978, Healey likened being attacked by the mild-mannered
Geoffrey Howe
in the
House of Commons
to being "savaged by a dead sheep".
[3]
Nevertheless, Howe appeared and paid warm tribute when Healey was featured on
This Is Your Life
in 1989. The two remained friends for many years, with Howe dying only a few days after Healey, in 2015.
Healy died at his home in Alfriston, Sussex on 3 October 2015 from a short-illness, aged 98..
[4]
Quotations related to
Denis Healey
at Wikiquote
- Appearances
on
C-SPAN
- Denis Healey
on
IMDb
- Births England and Wales 1837?1983
- Interview about nuclear strategy in Europe
[
permanent dead link
]
for the
WGBH-TV
series,
War and Peace in the Nuclear Age
Archived
2007-05-09 at the
Wayback Machine
, 1986
- The old bruiser who remained the boy next door
, William Keegan,
The Observer
, 3 December 2006, interview and retrospective
- Denis Healey at 90
, Elinor Goodman,
BBC News
, 30 March 2007
- "Desert Island Discs"
.
Desert Island Discs
. 14 June 2009.
BBC News
.
Radio 4
.
- Denis Winston Healey, Baron Healey (1917?), Politician: Sitter in 11 portraits
(National Portrait Gallery)