Sir Edward Heath

Sir Edward Heath (born July 9, 1916, Broadstairs, Kent, England—died July 17, 2005, Salisbury, Wiltshire) was the Conservative prime minister of Great Britain from 1970 to 1974.

Although he was of modest origins, Heath was educated at Oxford, where he was elected president of the University Conservative Association in 1937. In 1938, as chairman of the Federation of University Conservative Associations and president of the Oxford Union, he actively opposed the policy of appeasement toward Nazi Germany pursued by the Conservative prime minister Neville Chamberlain. He served in the army during World War II, worked in the Ministry of Civil Aviation in 1946–47, was editor of the Church Times from January 1948 to October 1949, and then became a member of a merchant banking firm.

Heath was elected to Parliament as a Conservative in the election of February 1950. In February 1951 he became an assistant whip. After a succession of posts in the whip’s office, he was made parliamentary secretary to the Treasury and chief government whip under Prime Minister Anthony Eden in December 1955. He served as minister of labour in the government of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan from October 1959 to July 1960, when he became lord privy seal with Foreign Office responsibilities. In this capacity he represented Britain in negotiations for entry into the European Economic Community (EEC; later succeeded by the European Union). In October 1963 he became secretary of state for industry, trade, and regional development and president of the Board of Trade.

After the Conservative defeat in October 1964, Heath became a major opposition figure. Upon Sir Alec Douglas-Home’s resignation, Heath was elected leader of the opposition in July 1965. His party suffered a decisive defeat in the March 1966 general election but won a victory in the election of June 1970, defeating the Labour Party of Prime Minister Harold Wilson.

As prime minister, Heath had to face the crisis of violent conflict in Northern Ireland, over which he imposed direct British rule in 1972. Heath scored a major triumph by winning French acceptance of British entry into the EEC in 1972–73. However, he proved unable to cope with Britain’s mounting economic problems, chiefly rising inflation and unemployment and a series of crippling labour strikes. Hoping to win a new mandate, Heath called for a general election on February 28, 1974. The Conservatives lost seats in the Commons to Labour, and Heath failed to form a coalition government. On March 4 he was succeeded as prime minister by Harold Wilson. After the Conservatives were defeated in another general election in October, Heath was replaced as party leader by Margaret Thatcher in 1975. Subsequently he was highly critical of Thatcher and of the Conservative Party’s movement to the political right and its opposition to European integration. Heath remained in the House of Commons until 2001.

Heath was also an accomplished organist, and in 1971 he conducted the London Symphony Orchestra, the first of several orchestras he was to conduct. He wrote several books, including Music: A Joy for Life (1976); Sailing: A Course of My Life (1975), an account of his sailing adventures; and the autobiography The Course of My Life (1998). In 1992 Heath was knighted.