Anthony Royle, Baron Fanshawe of Richmond

Anthony Henry Fanshawe Royle, Baron Fanshawe of Richmond, KCMG (27 March 1927 – 28 December 2001) was a British Conservative Party politician and businessman.

A son of Sir Lancelot Royle, a wealthy businessman, he was educated at Harrow and RMA Sandhurst. He joined the Life Guards and subsequently the SAS. He contracted polio on his way to Korea and was invalided back to UK and spent a year in an iron lung.[1]

After recovering, his father provided funding for him to become a member of Lloyd's of London, building upon his start in 1948 with insurance broker Sedgwick Collins.[1]

In the 1950s, Royle became President of the Western Area Young Conservatives. He unsuccessfully contested St Pancras North in the 1955 general election. As the Conservative candidate in the 1958 Torrington by-election, he failed to hold the usually safe seat.

At the 1959 general election, Royle was finally elected to the House of Commons, as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Richmond, Surrey. He held the seat until he retired at the 1983 general election. Royle was strongly pro-membership of the European Community.[1]

He was a junior minister for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from 1970 to 1974. He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in 1974.[2] He was invited to become Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party by Margaret Thatcher to reform the way the party recruited candidates. He was also responsible for the party's International office.

In 1974 his father passed on his boardroom seats at British Match Corporation, Brooke Bond Liebig and Wilkinson Sword. In 1980, he did not stand for parliament again.[1] He was elevated to the House of Lords in 1983 as Baron Fanshawe of Richmond, of South Cerney in the County of Gloucestershire.[3] He was a director of Westland Helicopters during the 1985 Westland affair, supporting Michael Heseltine's pro-Europe position rather than Margaret Thatcher.[1]

He acted as an informal liaison from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to Keenie Meenie Services, one of Britain's first private military companies formed by ex-SAS members.[4]

He was Chairman of the Sedgwick Group PLC from 1993 to 1999.

He married the former Vogue model Shirley Worthington in 1957 and had two daughters,[1] one of whom, Lucinda, is married to a Conservative hereditary peer, Lord de Mauley.

Coat of arms of Anthony Royle, Baron Fanshawe of Richmond

Crest On a chapeau Sable turned up Erminois a dragon's head erased Or breathing flames of fire Proper. Escutcheon Quarterly: 1st & 4th per pale Or and Sable on a chevron per pale Sable and Or between three fleurs-de-lys as many leopards' heads counterchanged (Royle); 2nd Or a chevron between three fleurs-de-lys Sable (Fanshawe); 3rd checky Azure and Argent overall a cross Gules. Supporters Two dragons Or winged Sable each breathing flames of fire Proper and gorged with a collar checky Argent and Azure rimmed Gules. Motto In Duo Confide Et Persevero [5]

References

1. Roth, Andrew (3 January 2002). "Lord Fanshawe of Richmond". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
2. "No. 46254". The London Gazette (Supplement). 5 April 1974. p. 4396.
3. "No. 49498". The London Gazette. 4 October 1983. p. 12949.
4. Doward, Jamie (18 January 2020). "Revealed: clandestine actions of mercenaries during Thatcher years". The Observer. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
5. Debrett's Peerage. 1985.

• Times Guide to the House of Commons 1979
• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs