TiMe anD tiDes – a life of WiDe experience

Herbert Keith Speed was born in Evesham but lived most of his early life on the Bucks/Beds border and in Warwickshire.

Educated at Bedford School and the Royal Naval Colleges at Dartmouth and Greenwich, he became a Royal Navy officer from 1947 to 1956 and saw service in the Korean War.

He was a lieutenant commander in the Royal Navy Reserve from 1964 to 1979.

He joined the Conservative research department in 1965 and took the Meriden seat in the Midlands from Labour at a by-election in 1968. He just held it at the 1970 general election. That year he was appointed an assistant whip and a year later a lord commissioner of the Treasury. In 1972 he was promoted to Parliamentary under secretary at the Department of the Environment.

When Labour won his seat in 1974 he was invited to put his name forward for the safe Ashford seat being vacated by Bill Deedes, who had been the MP since 1950.

In 1975, Margaret Thatcher invited Keith Speed to join her shadow cabinet as spokesman for the environment.

Two years later he became shadow immigration minister and when the Conservatives came to power in 1979 he became Navy Minister. He was a man of principle, which led to his departure in 1981.

He was not prepared to accept the view of then Defence Minister John Nott that the Navy should bear the brunt of cutbacks, which included Chatham Dockyards.

But the Iron Lady stood by Mr Nott and Sir Keith was sacked.

After he was fired he wrote a book about how the Royal Navy had been damaged by the cuts and how this led to lives being lost during the Falklands War.

His return to the back benches in 1981 signalled the start of a new career in Europe and across the world.

His wide ranging experience proved invaluable and he was appointed to the influential Parliamentary defence committee, which led to him becoming one of the British members on the governing body of the West European Union, an arm of Nato.

He also became a member of the Council of Europe where he served for a decade.

Sir Keith retired as an MP in 1997.