Born: 14 December, 1915, in Cairo, Egypt.
Died: 29 April, 2008, in Gloucestershire, aged 92.
SIR Anthony Kershaw was a shrewd House of Commons operator whose bluff exterior belied a cunning understanding of poli
tics. His career might have prospered further had he not been so closely associated with the government of Edward Heath. Certainly, when Margaret Thatcher became leader, she somewhat distrusted Kershaw's more liberal views.
In truth, Kershaw was a refreshingly independent politician and an excellent constituency MP. As a true party loyalist, he made several attempts to bring Heath and Thatcher to some sort of working relationship, but neither ever adequately responded.
Kershaw held several junior posts when the Tories were in opposition and was a popular and distinguished chairman of the Commons foreign affairs select committee. Before entering politics, he had worked at the Bar and served, with distinction, in the war.
John Anthony Kershaw was the son of a judge in Cairo and after Eton he read law at Balliol College, Oxford. He was called to the Bar in 1939 and in 1940 he was commissioned into the 16th/5th Queen's Royal Lancers and served in tanks in north Africa, where he was awarded an MC for his conduct during a battle in Tunisia. After the wireless in the brigade's scout car failed, Kershaw ran between his own tank and his brigadier's to take orders for transmission from his own radio, all the time under intense shell and machine-gun fire. On the next day he volunteered to man his severely disabled tank at the front of the defensive position that was under constant enemy artillery fire.
Kershaw landed in Normandy on D-Day, seeing action at the fierce and bloody siege of Caen and then advanced with his brigade into Belgium before being posted as an instructor at Staff College Camberley. After being demobbed with the rank of a major, Kershaw returned to the Bar and served on the London County Council.
In 1955 he won the seat at Stroud and served in various junior posts – in 1963 he was parliamentary private secretary to Edward Heath, whom he supported to succeed Sir Alec Douglas-Home. In 1970 he served in Douglas-Home's team at the Foreign Office, but when Mrs Thatcher became leader Kershaw was sidelined. His opinions (in favour of abortion, electoral reform and Europe, but against the death penalty) were not wildly different from hers, but Kershaw represented the Tory party of a former era.
Kershaw proved a most able chairman of the select committee on foreign affairs and became involved with the controversial affair over the sinking of the cruiser the Belgrano during the Falklands war. When informed of the dubious nature of the event, Kershaw decided to inform the Ministry of Defence, rather than the House of Commons. Kershaw did, however, publish a balanced report after the war, and he firmly argued that the Belgrano affair was justified on sound military grounds. He also pleaded that a more conciliatory attitude be adopted towards Argentina.
He retired from the Commons in 1987 and joined the board of the British Council and was deputy lieutenant for Gloucestershire.
Kershaw, who was knighted in 1981, married Barbara Crookenden in 1939. She and their two sons and two daughters survive him.
The full article contains 553 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
