Bernard Weatherill

Bernard Weatherill
Name	Bruce Bernard Weatherill (25 November, 1920- 6 May, 2007)
Nicknames	Jack (everyone)
Politics
Party	None (previously Conservative)
Constituency	Croydon North East (1964 - 1992)
Positions	• Speaker (1983 - 1992) • Deputy Speaker (1979 - 1983) • Deputy Chief Whip (1973 - 1979) • Whip (1967 - 1973)
Likes	Being a mensch, Parliament, backbenchers, fine tailoring, horses, tennis, vintage cars
Dislikes	Breaking his word, eating meat, an overmighty executive
Friends	Walter Harrison, Dennis Skinner (sort of)
Enemies	Margaret Thatcher, Norman Tebbit, George Thomas
Relationships
Partners	Lyn Eatwell (1949 - 2007)
Children	Bernard (1951), H. Bruce (1953) and Virginia (1955)
Personal Attributes
Nationality	English
Religion	Anglican
Sexuality	Straight
Height	5' 8"
Eye Colour	Brown
Handedness	Right
Accent	Received pronunciation
Languages	Urdu, Morse code

He's an honourable man, you know, absolutely honourable. I don't say that about many Tories.~ Michael Foot

Bernard "Jack" Weatherill was the first Speaker of the House of Commons to appear on television, and the last to wear the traditional wig. As the Speaker during the second half of Margaret Thatcher's reign, he earned her enmity for standing up for Parliament against the Government. He was known for his decency, his complete inability to control the Commons Chamber, and his friendships with various Labourite trolls, most notably Walter Harrison and Dennis Skinner.

Life and Career

Early Life

Bruce Bernard Weatherill and his twin sister Margery were born in Sunningdale, Berkshire, to the tailor Bernard Weatherill and his wife Annie. The twins were immediately dubbed "Jack" and "Jill", a nickname Bernard would go by for the rest of his life. They were followed by a sister Barbara a few years later. The family were affectionate and close knit.

The photo of Jack in Bernard Weatherill Ltd.

Bernard Sr. was a Fabian socialist who had been blacklisted for leading a tailor's strike. Since he was unemployable he was forced to set up his own business, the high end tailors Bernard Weatherill. Founded in 1910 in Sunninghill, the company was established in Saville Row two years later, and by the time Jack was born it had been awarded a Royal Warrant as the king's official riding clothes outfitter and livery tailors. It has kept the Warrant and remains a family business to this day: they have a signed photograph of Jack on the wall, wearing the Speaker's uniform they made for him.

Jack was sent away to boarding school at the age of seven. It was a traumatic experience for him because he had already developed his lifelong loathing for meat, but in that era it was considered unacceptable for a child to refuse it. He was forced to sit next to the headmaster at lunchtime until he'd finished, which meant he was hardly ever allowed out to play. At the age of twelve his parents sent him to a psychologist, who sensibly pronounced "Why force him? Let him become a vegetarian."

Consequently when he was sent on Malvern College Jack's parents arranged a vegetarian diet for him, which solved his meat problem but left him with another. He was the only boy in the school who got special (and often better) food. The social consequences were dire: poor Jack was written off by both pupils and staff. He was never made a prefect; instead he was dubbed the "senior inferior"- the oldest boy with no rank in the school's hierarchy- and left to his own devices. He left at seventeen without achieving any academic distinctions. Although it made his school life miserable, Jack credited his stubborn vegetarian streak with strengthening his character by turning him into a rebel and giving him an affinity for other "inferiors", namely the backbenchers.

Jack wanted to go to university, but his father decided he should be apprenticed as a tailor instead and join the family business. Their firm had very high standards, which applied to Jack as much as to anyone else. His father would not release him from the workroom until he had made a satisfactory pair of breeches for King George V.

World War II

India was the most formative time in my life. It taught me the importance of self-discipline.~ Jack Weatherill

Quite a looker in his day

On the day Britain declared war in 1939 Jack enlisted in the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, but if he'd hoped for an immediate release from the Bernard Weatherill workroom, he was disappointed: they sent him back home to grow up. In September of 1940 he was finally accepted for training. He was commissioned in the 4th/7th Royal Dragoons, but he was unhappy there; he'd signed up for the Dragoons because of his love of horses and he was dismayed to find it was now a tank regiment (although he would probably have been more dismayed to charge German tanks on horseback). He transferred to the Indian Army, which still used horses, and finally set sail for India in 1942

In India he served with the 19th King George's Own Lancers, rising to the rank of captain. There Jack learned a number of useful things: Morse code, Urdu, which would later help him communicate with his Croydon constituents, and meditation, which would later help him cope with Dennis Skinner. He witnessed the horrific Bengal famine of 1943, which reaffirmed his commitment to vegetarianism. In 1944 his regiment were posted to Burma, where they were instrumental in recapturing Akyab Island from the Japanese so that the Allies could use the airfield there to resupply their forces in central Burma. After the Japanese surrender in August of 1945, the 19th KGVO Lancers went on to occupy Malaya. Jack was finally sent home to England in January of 1946 and discharged from the army in October.

The dashing Captain Jack

Throughout the war he wrote weekly letters home to his family, addressed to "Dearest Everyone", in which he gave wry, cheerful, engaging accounts of daily life in the army and gossiped about their Guildford acquaintances. When he got to India he spiced them up with details about the weather (very rainy, even by British standards) and the local culture, and kept up the weekly schedule despite a six month delay in receiving the replies. In one early letter he joked that he was being trained for a future career in public service as a latrine cleaner. Little did he know how prophetic it would prove, since as a whip he'd spend a great deal of time chasing backbenchers out of the Commons toilets to vote.

Pre-political Career

Upon his discharge from the army, Jack resumed his apprenticeship with Bernard Weatherill Ltd., which he completed in 1948. He was immediately made Director, and in 1958 he became Managing Director. He remained involved in the business during the early part of his parliamentary career, becoming Chairman in 1967. In 1969 he presided over a merger with Kilgour French & Stanbury Ltd., Tailors and became Chairman of the combined firms. He remained in that role until 1970, when he had to step down because his duties as a government whip were taking up too much of his time. He was a successful businessman; under his leadership the firm had an international profile and some of their designs are preserved as examples of cutting-edge mid-century fashion in various museum collections.

Early Political Career

Membership [of the Guildford Young Conservatives] rose dramatically under the chairmanship of this very handsome ex-cavalry officer.~ The Guildford Dragon

Before the war Jack had joined the Young Conservatives in his home town of Guildford, "more for the girls than anything else". After he got back in 1946 he became their chairman, and rose to become the Divisional Chairman of the Young Conservatives. In 1959 he became Chairman of the grown-up Guildford Conservative Association. In 1962 he became Vice-Chairman of the South Eastern Area Provincial Council of the Conservative Party, and in 1963 he joined the Tory National Union executive. As can be seen from this long and dedicated record of voluntary service, he was grooming the seat, but he did his job a little too well; his efforts won him broader recognition and he was selected for Croydon North East. A week later, the incumbent MP for Guildford announced he was stepping down. Poor Jack had just missed his chance.

Still, he'd secured himself a fairly safe Tory seat, and in 1964 he was elected to Parliament with a majority of 3,831 votes.

On the Backbenches

It probably wasn't this thimble. Thimbles with your face on them are not very humbling.

When he was first elected Jack's mother gave him a silver thimble and asked him to carry it with him to remind him of his origins and "keep him humble". He kept it in his pocket throughout the whole of his parliamentary career, even putting it in his Speaker's robes. But in light of the snobbery endemic on the Tory benches at the time, Mrs. Weatherill needn't have bothered- her son's new colleagues had no intention of letting him forget.

Jack was so nervous before making his maiden speech that he spent most of the day locked in the toilets. While he was hiding in there, he overheard one of his senior Tory colleagues come in and remark to his friends, "I don't know what this place is coming to, Tom, they've got my tailor in here now." On another occasion a Tory grandee asked him what he did for a living. Jack answered that he was a tailor, to which the baffled MP replied, "One of the Shropshire Tailors?"

Jack persevered despite the snobbery and the lack of a decent vegetarian option in the parliamentary dining room, and became an early advocate for small business in Parliament before it became generally fashionable. Jack chaired the Parliamentary Panel for the Small Businesses Association from 1965 to 1970 and authored a number of bills to promote their interests. Ted Heath even sought his advice on forming the Small Business Development Bureau.

The Whips' Office

I think honour, and to be trusted, is very, very important. I think I could say without contradiction that Walter and I trusted each other, and we acted in honour. And even if I'd had to stand out on that day, I believe I would have done the right thing keeping to my word. And I honour Walter Harrison for not pushing it.~ Jack Weatherill, on the vote that brought down the Callaghan Government

In 1967 Jack was made a whip. He was widely respected for being kind, understanding, and utterly fair, and his talent for soothing disgruntled backbenchers enabled him to rise quickly through the ranks. In 1971 he was promoted to Vice-Chamberlain of the Royal Household, tasked in addition to his other whiply duties with writing up a daily account of parliamentary proceedings and political gossip for the Queen. According to Wikipedia she found his letters more entertaining than the debates themselves, although that seems like a low bar to clear. In 1972 he became a senior whip, and in December of 1973 Heath promoted him to Deputy Chief Whip, just in time to go into opposition. (Fortunately for Jack, it's one of the three jobs on the opposition frontbench that are salaried.)

Jack is looking forward to the next Parliament with wild enthusiasm.

In opposition it was Jack's mission to bring down the minority Labour government. To this end, he set up a network of spies from constituency Conservative Associations to watch Labour MPs' houses and inform him whether or not they were coming in to Parliament to vote. His intelligence gathering paid off in March of 1979, when the Conservatives tabled a confidence motion and Labour's wafer-thin majority depended on whether or not they could bring the dying Alfred Broughton down from Yorkshire. Jack's informant told him there were no signs of the ambulance Broughton would need to travel, and he was able to go to his friend and opposite number Walter Harrison and state confidently that Labour were going to lose the vote.

Here Jack's sense of honour almost undid him. Walter conceded that he didn't have the numbers, and he was therefore formally demanding a pair for Broughton because he was too sick to travel. Jack initially refused, on the grounds that the pairing arrangement had never been intended for confidence motions and he couldn't ask a Tory MP to risk their career by sitting out on such an important vote. But after a little arm-twisting from Walter he admitted that they had always had a firm undertaking to pair sick MPs and they had always dealt fairly with each other. Although it would cost him his career once Thatcher found out he'd kept the Government in power, Jack would abstain himself to honour their agreement.

Walter was so moved by Jack's sacrifice that he refused to accept his offer, and withdrew the request for a pair. The Government fell by one vote.

The whips kept their last-minute negotiation secret for twenty-five years. The story only came to light in 2004, when the BBC reporter Mark D'Arcy was putting together a documentary about the night the Callaghan Government fell. Both whips were long retired, Jack to the Lords and Walter to political exile in Wakefield. Although Jack kept the secret in his own interview, he gave D'Arcy Walter's contact information and recommended that he go up to Wakefield to interview him. (True to form, Jack asked D'Arcy to bring him back an intelligence report, this time on Walter's health and comfort.) D'Arcy found Walter full of vim and vigour and at long last willing to spill the beans about the whips' secret deal, and when he returned to Westminster Jack finally confessed his own role.

The Speaker's Office

What I'm doing is bringing the Speakership into the context of the age. In a modern school, the headmaster cannot rely on the cane; I don't seek to do so in the House. In the 1980s, other methods of ensuring discipline have to be used.~ Jack Weatherill

I am positively in favor of robust debate.~ Jack Weatherill

Although she didn't know how close Jack had come to keeping her out of Number 10, Margaret Thatcher knew only too well that he wasn't the sort of hardliner she wanted in her Whip's Office. He was much too gentle with recalcitrant backbenchers, and worse, he'd voted for proportional representation for the European Parliament. It had been a free vote, but that didn't mean there wasn't a right and wrong answer, and the Iron Lady had a long memory. She didn't want Jack in her government, but it would be too dangerous to send him back to the backbenches where his popularity might turn him into a nucleus of dissent. Somehow he had to be silenced. Thatcher reached for the only means at her disposal and made him Deputy Speaker.

This plan turned out to be too clever by half. Jack's time as Deputy Speaker was uneventful; he spent most of it failing to keep order in heated debates and fuming at his boss, the Speaker George Thomas, who he felt was in Thatcher's pocket. But when Thomas retired at the 1983 election Jack was in pole position to succeed him. Too late, Thatcher realised her mistake and tried to put up alternative candidates: Jack's old boss, the Chief Whip Humphrey Atkins, and the former Foreign Secretary Francis Pym. But the Speaker is elected by the whole House and the Opposition and the Tory backbenchers wanted someone who was known to be impartial, courteous, and scrupulously fair. Despite Thatcher's informal whipping operation and some reservations about his ability to control the House, Jack won the day.

Full List of Appointments
• Junior Whip (1967 - 1971)
• Vice-Chamberlain of the Royal Household (October 1971 - April 1972)
• Senior Whip (April 1972 - December 1973)
• Deputy Chief Whip (December 1973 - May 1979)
• Deputy Speaker (1979 - 1983)
• Speaker (1983 - 1992)

Personal Life

Jack met his future wife Lyn through a typical act of kindness. They were on board a ship departing for the United States, and Jack noticed a tear rolling down Lyn's cheek as the ship slipped its moorings. He offered her a handkerchief. They were married in 1949 after a short engagement and had three children together, Bernard, Bruce, and Virginia. It was a happy marriage, and they remained together until his death in 2007.

Despite his busy work life, Jack was able to make time for a wide range of hobbies and outside interests. He was a dedicated churchman and served as High Bailiff of Westminster Abbey from 1989 until 1998, when he resigned in protest at the handling of the removal of the organist. He was into vintage cars, and co-drove a 1904 Renault on the 1977 London-Brighton run. He kept up both his meditation and his horseback riding from his time in India. As Speaker he used to get up early in the morning to help exercise the horses of the Household Cavalry. He was also a devoted tennis player.

Through his long public service Jack accreted honors and charities like barnacles on the hull of a ship. He was a freeman of the City of London and of the Borough of Croydon, a Deputy Lieutenant of Kent, an honorary Bencher of Lincoln's Inn, Vice-Chancellor and later a knight of the Order of St John of Jerusalem, and president of the Addiscombe Boys Club, the Croydon branch of the British Institute of Management, the Hansard Society, the House of Commons Motor Club, the Industry and Parliamentary Trust, the Lantern Polio Appeal, the Malvernian Society and OM Club, the Croydon Branch of the Pakistan Welfare Association, the Surrey Sinfonietta, and the Westminster Pastoral Foundation, among others. He was also a member of the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors, the Worshipful Company of Blacksmiths, the Worshipful Company of Gold and Silver Wyre Drawers, and just to liven up all the worshipfulness, the House of Commons Breakfast Group and the Scout Association Council. (And that's just the abridged list.)

Ideology

He represented the sort of moderate Toryism non-Tories like.~ The Guardian

Portrayal

In the Media

"I often say I'm not in the entertainment business," Weatherill said in an interview with The Associated Press in 1991. "This is a workshop."

In Culture

Jack is one of the heroes, and probably the moral centre, of James Graham's hit political play This House, soon to be turned into a BBC series. In the stage version he was played by Charles Edwards.

A slight upgrade from central casting, most notably in the region of "hair".

The main theme of the play was that you should ship Harrisill. This may account for Jack's casting, since the real Jack Weatherill was every bit as wryly charming as Edwards but considerably balder.

In Fanon

Shipping

Jack has been exclusively shipped with Walter Harrison, which is understandable since there is a grand total of one fic about him.

AUs

In the Dæmon AU Jack's dæmon is a fisher named Parasceva, after the patron saint of spinners and needleworkers.