Sir Anthony Buck, MP; Independent obit
Hyfler/Rosner
FORMER CONSERVATIVE MP WHO BECAME EMBROILED IN SCANDAL
BYLINE: JOHN BARNES
ALTHOUGH HE served briefly as the junior minister responsible for the Navy
in the Ministry of Defence from 1972 until 1974, Antony Buck was the
quintessential Conservative backbencher - loyal, dependable, for the most
part mainstream in his opinions - and rather more of a middleweight than his
earlier career might have suggested.
However, he is likely to find a place in the history of the Major
administration for contributing to the downfall of a Chief of Defence Staff.
He had the ill-fortune to come to public notice, not for his work for his
constituency or party, but because of the activities of his second wife,
Bienvenida Perez Blanco. Buck's first marriage, to an Australian, Judy
Grant, ended in divorce in 1989 after 34 years. "Judy fell in love with
somebody else. The strains of political life didn't help," Buck claimed, but
his own infidelity did not help. "She wasn't keen to come to London, so one
got lonely." Stories vary as to how Buck met his second wife, late in 1989,
but they were married within months, in March 1990, honeymooned in Barbados
and afterwards spent a considerable time in France. Bienvenida Perez
Blanco's background was not what it seemed. She appears to have decided
shortly after she came to London in the early 1970s that there was a future
in offering love and companionship to successful men rather older than
herself. Embarking on marriage, however, was a new departure. She described
their meeting in her autobiography, Bienvenida: the making of a modern
mistress (1996):
Sir Antony struck me as an infectiously kind and positive man, with an
extraordinarily retentive memory, who reminded me a little of my father. I
was keen to get to know him, since he was clearly a man of stature - now
nearing the end of his career as a politician, after earlier taking silk as
a prominent criminal lawyer.
We started to meet regularly for lunches and dinners, usually at the Houses
of Parliament, though I would sometimes invite him to my flat as well. He
seemed very popular with other MPs, though no one took him terribly
seriously because he drank heavily.
I could see he was a lonely man. In return, I think he found me an amusing
companion and a wonderful distraction.
It is difficult to know how much credence to put in Bienvenida's claims that
she paid for their honeymoon and holiday, although it is clear that divorce
from Judy had cost Buck his Georgian country house outside Colchester. It is
evident from the many variants in the stories Bienvenida tells that she is a
far from reliable witness and the second divorce, in 1993, left Antony Buck
greatly impoverished. What is clear is that she quickly tired of the
marriage.
There is equally no doubt that, like many MPs, Buck drank rather more than
was good for him or for their marriage. Bievenida Buck not only resorted to
the bottle herself but sought solace in other men's arms. Two of her affairs
became public knowledge, one to a businessman cousin of the Iraqi president
Saddam Hussein, the other to the Chief of Defence Staff, Sir Peter Harding.
While it was not the direct cause of the break-up of the Bucks' marriage,
the discovery of letters between Harding and Bienvenida allowed Antony Buck
to sue for divorce in 1993. Harding was not mentioned by name, but in the
following year Bienvenida sold her story to the News of the World, and he
was forced to retire after only 15 months in the job.
Buck's period in the headlines was not quite over. A Russian teacher, Tamara
Norashkaryan, claimed political asylum in Britain apparently with the sole
purpose of marrying Buck and, indeed, the marriage took place in 1994.
Shortly afterwards Buck was in hospital with minor injuries after a
tempestuous quarrel with his new wife. He did not prefer charges.
Buck deserved a better press. He was part of a Conservative mafia from
Cambridge that included Geoffrey Howe from his own college (Trinity Hall),
Patrick Jenkin, Denzil Freeth and Douglas Hurd. Reflecting on their
abilities, Howe recalled Freeth's career as meteoric. Within a decade he was
a junior minister, but he left the Commons for good in 1964. Buck's career,
too, was "sadly incomplete", said Howe: "a successful Navy Minister with Ted
Heath, one of my backers for the leadership in 1975, he never hit it off
with Margaret Thatcher".
Philip Antony Fyson Buck came from a family of farmers, agricultural
merchants and packers and he was later to take up directorships in the
family firms of A.F. Buck Ltd and A.F. Buck (Packers) Ltd, returning to them
again after his brief spell in office. But from the start he seemed bent on
a career in politics. He was educated at the King's School, Ely, and after
doing National Service in the Army - he was in Berlin at the time of the
Soviet blockade - he went up to read History at Trinity Hall, a Cambridge
college well-known for producing lawyers. Buck was amongst them, following a
first in Prelims with a Second in Part I History before switching to law in
the second part of his degree and being called to the Bar at the Inner
Temple in 1954. He practised in London and East Anglia and took silk in
1974.
But the law always took second place to politics. Buck chaired both the
Cambridge University Conservative Association and the Federation of
University Conservatives in 1951 and he served two years as secretary of the
think- tank the Bow Group. He tried for the Cambridgeshire seat in 1960, but
Francis Pym was preferred. However, in February 1961, the elevation of Cub
Alport to the House of Lords led to a by-election in Colchester, which Buck
won comfortably. He retained the seat in the face of a steadily increasing
Labour challenge until it was split and in 1983 took the solidly Tory North
Colchester seat, holding it until 1992, when he stood down and was replaced
by Bernard Jenkin, son of his old Cambridge contemporary.
Buck made a promising start to his career when he was appointed PPS to the
Attorney-General in 1963 and piloted through the Commons the Limitations
Act, which permitted those suffering from the delayed effects of injury or
disease to bring an action outside the Statute of Limitations. He briefly
became secretary of the Conservative backbench Science and Technology
Committee, before being elected joint secretary of their Home Affairs
Committee, 1964-70. After two years as vice-chairman, he took over the chair
in the autumn of 1972, only to find himself in the government when Peter
Kirk was appointed to take charge of the first British delegation to the
European Parliament.
Buck had been appointed to sit on the select committee that oversaw the work
of the Parliamentary Ombudsman in 1967 and, after his brief but successful
spell as a junior minister and a spell on the opposition front bench as
deputy defence spokesman, he returned to the committee, chairing it from
1977 until his retirement in 1992. He also served on the Liaison Committee
from 1980. From 1974 to 1976 he served on the parliamentary delegation to
the Council of Europe and Western European Union. He became a vocal
supporter of Nato and the Anglo-American alliance and was one of those who
gave support to President Ronald Reagan's "Star Wars" project.
In 1975 he was one of the principal organisers of Geoffrey Howe's campaign
for the Conservative leadership, promising him 25 votes - in the event he
got 17. He was unfortunate also in his effort to retain his place on the
1922 Executive, tying for last place in 1976 and losing out when the coin
was tossed. However, he was re-elected to it in 1977 and retained his place
until he left Parliament in 1992. By now his principal concern was defence
and he chaired the Conservative backbench defence committee from 1979 to
1989.
Both in May and again in July 1981 he warned that cuts to the Navy and in
BAOR had gone as far as Conservative MPs would tolerate and he led the
campaign against the selling of Invincible in 1982. He was knighted in 1983,
but continued to rebel at times, most notably over the Government's refusal
to let councils spend the income received from council house sales and in
giving support to Michael Mates' attempt to band the "poll tax" and Richard
Shepherd's bill to reform the Official Secrets Act. Although in the 1960s
Buck had been one of those MPs lending support to the Greek Colonels, he was
later to support the Turkish occupation of North Cyprus.
A man of considerable charm and humour, he scarcely deserved to figure even
as the innocent party in one of the sex scandals of the 1990s, but that is
the way he will probably be remembered.
Philip Antony Fyson Buck, barrister and politician: born Ely, Cambridgeshire
19 December 1928; called to the Bar, Inner Temple 1954; Legal Adviser,
National Association of Parish Councils 1957-59, Vice-President 1970- 74; MP
(Conservative) for Colchester 1961-83, for Colchester North 1983- 92; PPS to
Attorney-General 1963-64; Parliamentary Under- Secretary of State for
Defence (Navy), Ministry of Defence 1972-74; QC 1974; Kt 1983; married 1955
Judy Grant (one daughter; marriage dissolved 1989), 1990 Bienvenida Perez
Blanco (marriage dissolved 1993), 1994 Tamara Norashkaryan; died London 6
October 2003.