Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
First book aged 94.. now the second, at 103
Oldest ex-mp writes of last rites, war crash, NATO & hunger strikes
BRITAIN’S oldest living former MP has published his second book at the age of 103 following his debut when he was 94.
War hero Sir Patrick Duffy was twice read the last rites as a pilot and was one of the first people to have plastic surgery after his crash.
The politician also remembers the bitter General Strike in 1926 and confronted Margaret Thatcher over hunger strikes in Northern Ireland.
“When I entered Parliament, mam and dad had no bathroom or indoor toilet, yet as a family we always felt we had everything. Our glass was always half full,” he has said previously.
The second autobiography of the ex-labour MP for Colne Valley, later Sheffield Attercliffe, covers his Parliamentary career including his time as a defence minister and presidency of the NATO Assembly.
Born in Wigan, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II and received a Papal knighthood from Pope John Paul II.
His book, From Wigan to Westminster, was launched at the Danum Gallery in Doncaster.
Sir Patrick, from Doncaster, said: “We had to leave Wigan when the pit where my dad worked blew up and all the afternoon shift were wiped out. Somehow he survived and we arrived in Rossington
The men were good at parading, the women fought for the cause SIR PATRICK DUFFY ON HIS FATHER’S COALFIELD
[South Yorks] in time for the General Strike.”
He said he had been strengthened by the coalfield where his father worked. Sir Patrick added: “The men were good at parading and singing but it was the women who fought for the cause.
“I was so proud of those Rossington women and I took the same deep pride in the people of Doncaster at the outbreak of war.” He enlisted in the Royal Navy at the start of the Second World War and became a Fleet Air Arm officer.
Sir Patrick later graduated from the London School of Economics and studied his PHD at Columbia University in New York, followed by a lectureship at Leeds University.
After his retirement from Parliament in 1992, he spent his 80s walking and doing pilgrimages.