My Haven LORD FOWLER

The Lord Speaker, 80, in his office at the Palace of Westminster

1 HOUSE HUSBAND

I’ve been in Parliament, the House of Commons and the House of Lords for nearly 50 years. My office by the Thames is magnificent, and I can get away from the hurly-burly of the Lords here. This photograph is of my wife Fiona and me at our wedding at Chelsea Register Office in 1979. She was a library clerk in the

House of Commons then. We’d both been wed before but marrying her is the best decision

I’ve ever made.

She’s helped me in everything and is the mother of our beautiful daughters

Kate and Isobel.

2 BENN THERE, DONE THAT

This photo of the committee of the Cambridge Union, a debating society, brings back happy memories. Some of my friends also became Conservative MPs: Leon Brittan [front row, middle], the brightest man of our generation, and Peter Temple-Morris [back row, far right]. On Leon’s left is Antony Wedgwood Benn, who was an MP already and was giving us a speech that night – there was none of that Tony Benn stuff from him then!

3 POSTER CHILD

In the 80s, the world faced the new threat of AIDS. As Secretary of State for Health and Social Security I launched a hardhitting education campaign including this ‘Don’t Die Of Ignorance’ poster. And it worked: the number of AIDS-related deaths fell. The red ministerial box is a reminder of those years – I was Secretary of State for Transport, and for Employment too.

4 FIGHTING SPIRIT

My tie and badge here take me back to the

Army – I was in the Essex

Regiment from 1956-58, and I served in Germany for a year. I made it to

Officer, but being a

National Service second lieutenant was as low as you could get! There was a divide in the Army between public schoolboys and grammar schoolboys, like me, which is odd now everyone is trying to get their kids into a grammar.

5 OF MACE AND MEN

This beautiful mace, a 5ft-long, gold-layered ornamental club dating back to the reign of Charles II, means a great deal to parliamentarians. It’s a symbol of the speakership but also a symbol of the authority of the monarch in Parliament. Each day when I enter the House of Lords I follow the mace down the corridor into the chamber and members bow to it before it is placed on the Woolsack next to me. The only time the mace is covered up is during the State Opening of Parliament, which is when the Queen attends in person.

6 WIGHT STUFF

I moved to Seaview, on the Isle of Wight, in the early 1980s and I’ve split my time between a flat in London and our family home on ‘The Island’ ever since, as this mug reminds me. We wanted to bring up our daughters in a fairly protected environment, where they could sail and go to the shops without an adult. But you’re not seen as a real ‘Islander’ unless your family has lived there for generations.

As told to York Membery. You can watch the House of Lords and its committees live and on demand at parliamentlive.tv.