Michael Rhodes wrote:
> Sir Frederick Arthur Bishop, Kt, CB, CVO, who was Principal Private
> Secretary to the Prime Minister, 1956-59 (Eden and then Macmillan);
and
> was Director-General, The National Trust, 1971-75, died at his home
at
> Bramshott, 2 March, 2005. He was aged 89.
<<Sir Frederick Bishop>>
(Daily Telegraph: 14/03/2005)
Sir Frederick Bishop, who died on March 2 aged 89, served as principal
private secretary to two prime ministers; later, from 1971 to 1975, he
was Director-General of the National Trust.
Bishop was the model of the traditional civil servant: self-effacing,
impartial and admired for his integrity; both the prime ministers whom
he served - Anthony Eden and Harold Macmillan - held him in high
regard.
Frederick Arthur Bishop was born near Bristol on December 4 1915. He
won a scholarship to Colston's Hospital, Bristol, but the family could
not afford to send him to university, and in 1934 he joined the civil
service. His first post was at the Estate Duty Office in Somerset
House. To gain promotion there, it was necessary to have some
qualification in law and the young Bishop studied in his spare time, in
1938 gaining a Law degree from London University.
>From 1942 to 1946 Bishop served in the RAF, becoming a ferry pilot in
the Air Transport Auxiliary. He then passed into the administrative
grade of the civil service and joined the Ministry of Food, at which he
was principal private secretary to several ministers from 1949 to 1952.
Bishop then spent three years (1953-55) as assistant secretary at the
Cabinet Office, responsible for organising the economic business of the
Cabinet and its committees. During this period, he formed a close
working relationship with Sir Norman Brook, Secretary of the Cabinet,
who recommended him as Anthony Eden's principal private secretary in
early 1956; this was the year of the Suez crisis, which led to Eden's
resignation in January 1957. Macmillan retained Bishop's services when
he succeeded Eden.
In one of his volumes of memoirs (Tides of Fortune: 1945-1955),
Macmillan referred to Bishop as "a man of exceptional brilliance, and
flexible as well as loyal". He also described him as "a tower of
strength".
In 1957 Macmillan was preoccupied by "serious Communist infiltration
into Syria", and Bishop was sent to Washington to discuss the problem
with the American Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles; Macmillan
declared the visit "a great success, since Bishop's charm and
intelligence made a great impression".
Throughout his time with Macmillan, Bishop travelled frequently with
his political master. In 1959 he was with the prime minister in Moscow.
During a famous meeting, Khrushchev refused to accompany Macmillan to
Kiev "because you've insulted me", adding "and moreover I've got the
most terrible toothache". Macmillan withdrew to the British embassy to
discuss this slight; although he decided to proceed to Kiev as though
nothing had happened, Bishop later recalled: "I remember him talking
deliberately to the chandelier in the middle of the room, assuming that
it was bugged: 'Of course, we will have to recall the Ambassador and
order the plane.'" Khrushchev immediately sent a conciliatory message,
and constructive talks were resumed.
Whereas Eden had never asked his private secretaries for their advice
on policy, Macmillan liked to consult Bishop, particularly on foreign
affairs. It was a measure of the closeness of the two men that, during
the 1959 election campaign, Macmillan practised campaign speeches in
his private secretary's garden at East Grinstead, West Sussex.
In 1959 Bishop was appointed deputy secretary to the Cabinet, under Sir
Norman Brook, remaining in the post until 1961. After a spell as a
deputy secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food,
during which he assisted in the abortive negotiations to join the
Common Market, he became Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Land
and Natural Resources (1964-65).
He then resigned from the Civil Service, aged 49, to go into the
commercial world, joining the board of S Pearson & Son. His expertise
in the business of government was not, however, forgotten by Macmillan.
In 1970 - when Edward Heath was prime minister and Lord Home foreign
secretary - Macmillan recommended Bishop as the ideal emissary to be
sent to Rhodesia on behalf of the British Government; in the event,
Home went himself.
In 1971 Bishop succeeded Sir John Winifrith as Director-General of the
National Trust. He took on the job at a time when the Trust's
activities were expanding rapidly, and during his tenure the Trust
began opening shops at many of its properties, introduced a mail order
catalogue and instituted the series of lectures in the Purcell Rooms.
Major acquisitions during this period included Erddig, near Wrexham,
and Castle Drogo, Devon, while Bishop also became personally involved
in the battle to protect the Killerton estate - also in Devon - from
the impact of the M5 motorway, representing the Trust at the Public
Inquiry.
After leaving the National Trust, Bishop retired to Cornwall. He took
up directorships at Lloyds Bank and English China Clay before retiring
in 1986. He was chairman of the Home Grown Timber Advisory Committee, a
statutory body to advise the Forestry Commission, from 1966 to 1973.
>From 1971 to 1975 he was a member of the BBC's General Advisory
Council; he was a member of the Crafts Advisory Council (1973-75); and
a director of Pearson Longman (1970-77).
He was appointed CVO in 1957 and CB in 1960. He was knighted in 1975.
Freddy Bishop married, in 1940, Elizabeth Finlay Stevenson, who died in
1999; they had two sons and a daughter.
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