Mike Brearley

Mike Brearley is well known as a former English cricketer. He became captain of the England men’s cricket team where his record is unsurpassed. It’s widely agreed he was among the greatest England captains ever. But after retiring from cricket he went on to become a fine and prolific writer. Not so rare, you might perhaps say. And he retained his links with the sport as President of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in 2007-08. But unusually he also built a third career as a psychoanalyst, later serving as President of the British Psychoanalytical Society. Innovative as both thinker and doer, he should be appreciated for his fine all round game.

Early years

John Michael Brearley was born on 28^th April 1942, in Harrow, Middlesex, North West London. His father, Horace, had once played cricket for Yorkshire, and also played for Middlesex twice in 1949. The family had moved to Ealing in West London. Horace taught maths and cricket at City of London School. As a boy Mike would go along to watch his father play for his club, Brentham, whose ground was in the still countrified space between Hanwell and Greenford. When he was six he wrote proudly of his dad scoring 50 in a match there. Writing later he said “Horace was warm and affectionate… encouraging and supportive”. I met Horace once (he was a 1980s friend of my mother), and agree. A lovely man. I think Mike was lucky to have him as a father.

Father and son listed in the Brentham club archive

At City of London School Mike set new batting records, and was even called on by Brentham when only 13. In his last four years at school, he easily topped the historic averages, in 1959 scoring 1,015 runs, five centuries and an average of 84.58. In his last two years he was influenced by Jim Sims, in charge of coaching for Middlesex Young Amateurs. Sims was sure he’d play for Middlesex, but not sure he’d play for England. In 1960 he appeared for Middlesex 2^nd XI.

In 1961 Mike Brearley went to St John’s College, Cambridge. There he picked up where he'd left off, making 76 for the University against Surrey’s top bowlers on his first class debut, playing as a wicketkeeper, and batting well against Yorkshire and the Australians. He scored a century against Oxford and was University captain for his last two years, the first to lead the side in successive seasons that century. With another hundred at Lords in 1964, he reached a record Cambridge aggregate of 4,068. While still at University he was chosen for the MCC tour to South Africa in 1964-65. This would have later repercussions.  

A young captain

He’d played for Middlesex in several matches while at Cambridge, often opening the batting with Mike Smith. His university cricket record alone would be a career standout for most people. But Brearley simultaneously reached the highest academic level, achieving a first in Classics and 2.1 in Moral Sciences - “not quite a century in each innings, more like a hundred in the first and seventy in the second”, is his analogy. Incredibly, he added to his glittering achievements when coming joint top in that year’s Civil Service exams.

Cricket on Parker's Piece, Cambridge

He was chosen to captain the MCC under-25 side touring Pakistan in 1966-67, where he made 312 not out against North Zone. It would be his highest first class cricket score. He ended the tour with nearly 800 runs from six matches with an average of 132. During this period he was also working on research in philosophy back at St John’s, and teaching at Newcastle University and at the University of California. He kept his career options open while riding two pretty demanding horses. But it did mean limiting his cricket activities in 1969 and 1970.

Taking a stand

The D’Oliveira-South Africa controversy from 1968-70 was a real challenge. In 1965 Brearley had stayed in South Africa after the tour, “visiting the real South Africa, seeing places where cricketers seldom go”. This helped him form opinions he expressed when the question of Basil D’Oliveira’s selection for the proposed England tour arose.  

The details of this furore are admirably set out in Brearley’s brilliant book of reminiscences, events and characters, “On Cricket”. He seconded, and spoke for, David Sheppard’s resolution critical of the committee at MCC’s special meeting in December 1968. Until South Africa took firm steps towards non-racial cricket there should be no more England tours. At age 26, with his career ahead of him, this was a brave stance. But it was the right one, as would be proved. Disappointed with the MCC, he later wrote “I still believe cricket failed the biggest test that confronted it”.

Mike Brearley, Middlesex cricket captain

It’s maybe hard to imagine the ways and culture of cricket 50 years ago. A hierarchy with feudal roots expected obedience from those it ruled. The Gentleman v Player divide was still strong. And if current revelations of racism in Yorkshire and Scottish cricket are worrying, the ECB at least seems to be trying to tackle the problems. Not so the MCC in those days.

Captain of Middlesex and England

Brearley began playing cricket full time again in 1971 on being made Middlesex captain. The county was desperate to arrest what had been a near suicidal decline. His batting, by this stage a subject of some criticism, gradually progressed but it was not until 1973, when he was already 31, that he finally scored a County Championship century. But the Middlesex side under his captaincy improved immediately and in 1971 finished sixth. Cricket bible Wisden perceptively observed, “Brearley’s enthusiastic leadership, and specifically his ability to persuade the best out of each member of his team, proved the significant factor”.

In 1975 Brearley, continuing his batting improvement, averaged 53 for Middlesex. The next year, aged 34, he made his full England Test debut. It was the series where Tony Greig absurdly said he would make the West Indies ‘grovel’. Brearley scored 40 at Lord’s but little else and was replaced by a recalled John Edrich at Old Trafford, where he and 45 year old Brian Close were infamously bombarded by the Windies bowlers. Meanwhile as his batting blossomed, he led Middlesex to the 1976 Cricket County Championship. As widely expected, he was named vice-captain to Greig for the 1976/77 tour of India, followed by the Centenary Test in Australia. He played all six Tests that winter. At the start of 1977’s Ashes series he averaged 68.

The Packer Episode 

By this time the ‘Packer Circus’ - World Series Cricket - had burst on the scene. Greig joined it, was stripped of the England captaincy and Brearley took the reins. But not the whip. He ensured there was no ill will to the four Packer ‘rebels’ - Greig, Amiss, Knott and Woolmer - and he kept the four onside by insisting on their share of a negotiated team bonus. The Ashes came home to England, who won the Test series 3-0. Brearley had shown real leadership in getting some awkward if talented players to perform - even the grouchy Boycott ended his self-imposed exile for the third Test.

Lord's Pavilion

Wisden commended Brearley for the handling of his bowlers and his field placing, calling him “a totally different animal from the volatile Greig,.. led his men with quiet efficiency. He is clearly a master in the art of cricket”. It would have been hard to disagree.

Brearley was re-appointed as captain for the winter tours of Pakistan and New Zealand. Sadly, he broke his arm, missing the final Test in Pakistan and all of the New Zealand series. In his absence Boycott assumed his longed for role as captain, but failed. In summer 1978 Brearley resumed his captaincy with home wins against Pakistan and New Zealand. Next up was the 1978/79 Ashes series which England won 5-1, facing a weakened Aussie side, followed by 1979’s World Cup summer. England lost to the Windies in the final. Brearley and Boycott, set a target of 287 in 60 overs, batted nearly 40 overs for only 129, so later batters had too much to do. Three Tests against India followed.

By the 1979/80 Australian summer the Packer storm had abated. England were back there for a three match series not given Ashes status. Brearley riled many of the locals by declining some Packer innovations in the One Day Internationals, by winding up a TV audience with a cuddly toy marsupial and, for some reason, by growing a beard. They called him The Ayatollah. He seemed to be not unduly worried by the hostility he faced. He played and captained well, but Australia won all three games comfortably.

Standing aside, then recalled

By 1980 Brearley turned 38 and was reluctant to tour again. With successive series against the Windies in prospect, it was decided to appoint a successor right away. The baton passed to Ian Botham who began his stint as captain. Botham’s cricketing strength was in playing not leading, and his limitations were soon exposed. England lost the series, with five drawn games, but analysing the results suggests that had Brearley played, maintaining his average, it would have made all the difference. His experience would have brought fielding pressure and some dropped slip catches might well have been avoided (he was a top class slip fielder).

The 1981 Ashes

After the Lord’s Test in the 1981 Ashes series, Brearley was recalled to lead England. The team’s performance under his captaincy is the stuff of legends. Botham and Willis both put in incredible Headingley stints and Botham doubled up at Edgbaston and against a demoralised Aussie side at Old Trafford. There’s no point in repeating the well-known day by day, blow by blow details. England won the Ashes almost miraculously against the odds. Botham’s feats with bat and ball, plus Brearley’s captaincy, were decisive.

Assessments of others

Some detractors maintained that Brearley was merely a good captain, not a great one, and succeeded because of factors beyond his control. They say Kerry Packer and Ian Botham were the key to his reputation. In other words, they think Brearley was just lucky. Former skipper Ray Illingworth said “The statistics suggest he is one of the great England captains, the luckiest would be nearer the truth”. Dennis Lillee was also unimpressed, with “I don’t overrate him as a captain”.

Others had some churlish assessments, too, some of them apparently based more on social or political grounds. They either saw him parachuted in as a privileged university amateur, avoiding the ‘hard graft’ of county cricket, or thought him too liberal (and thus maybe not authoritarian enough) in his outlook. Hard to reconcile the two, though. If anyone were critical it would likely be Boycott, who said “I have no hesitation in saying he was the best captain I played under”. Or maybe Botham, “Brearley was without doubt the best captain I ever played under, a man with a billion dollar cricketing brain”.

Brearley's first (and highly regarded) book 

Clearly luck is needed in any sport. But the cliché is you can make your own luck. Despite his generally defensive batting, Brearley always sought to better his team’s position. A brilliant man-manager, he could also get inside opponents’ heads, applying his intellectual power. In his final match at Lord’s in 1982 Middlesex needed points to win the title. Deciding the wicket would turn later on he spotted the long retired Titmus who’d dropped in to see old friends. Was he available? Borrowing some kit, Titmus played, taking three wickets in the final innings as the spinners bowled Surrey out. A stunning coup de main.     

With Middlesex as champions, Mike Brearley retired from cricket aged 40. He was able to quit at the top. He captained the international side in 31 of his 39 Tests, winning 18 and losing only four. A quite brilliant record.

Post cricket

Brearley avoided the familiar broadcasting and media career path, apart from occasional articles for The Times. He studied to become a professional psychoanalyst and psychotherapist. Registered with the BPC he has always regarded cricket as a help in this area, not a hindrance. He has talked of the higher place needed to be ‘in the zone’ as if referring to Plato’s higher plane of existence. He has referred to the ‘sensory intuition’ needed of a captain and the agony of decision-making. Psychoanalysis is clearly inseparable from the game of cricket in his mind. And, in turn, he says he sees psychoanalysis running parallel with philosophy.   

Retired from cricket?

Brearley earned his living as a psychoanalyst and motivational guru for many years. And he’s still writing. His highly successful “The Art of Captaincy” was first published in 1985 and revised since. It’s a classic. Mike Atherton, a later England captain, turned journalist, wrote “The best book on captaincy written by an expert”. The advice on man-management in particular has been widely commended. Brearley has since written several others, including Spirit of Cricket, On Form and On Cricket. The latter, published in 2018, has a detailed and enlightening section on the D’Oliviera/MCC episode. Writing the more recent books was in his mind for a while. At last he had the chance to get the work done.

Brearley in the round

Australian fast bowler Rodney Hogg once famously described Brearley as having “a degree in people”. A fair description. Elected President of the MCC from 2007-08, Brearley went on to serve as President of the British Psychoanalytical Society from 2008-10. He has an OBE, and in 1998 became an Honorary Fellow of his former college, St John’s Cambridge. In 2006 he was also awarded an honorary doctorate by Oxford Brookes University.

The last of my series on British figures who might be more appreciated, Brearley is the only one still alive (he’s now 80), and the only one I ever saw in the flesh - at Lord’s captaining Middlesex and England. I admired him as that rare being, a huge intellect who embraced rather than disdained sport. And as a highly successful international sportsman who used his intelligence and learning on a wider professional stage. With clearly a deep understanding of what cricket is all about - more than most playing or writing about it - he speaks well of Ben Stokes, England's current excellent captain. He has upheld the strategic complexities and nuances of the longer game, which survives huge commercial and media pressure to simplify it to the point of distortion. Britain, and the wonderful global game of cricket, can be truly proud of him.

Speaking at the Bengal Club, Kolkata

Mike Brearley has long been married to Mana Sarabhai, a Gujarati from Ahmedabad. She’s the niece of Dr Vikram Sarabhai, hailed as the father of Indian space research. The pair first met when Brearley was on tour in India. From a cricketing family she’s also a gifted silversmith. They spend three months each year in India. Their two children are adults. He's kept his family out of the public gaze and wisely says they “will find their own paths”.

 

 

My main sources are Mike Brearley’s own books, especially “On Cricket”2018

Plus in particular three excellent articles: Wisden Almanack - Mike Brearley, from school prodigy to purposeful leader, Terry Cooper 2020; Mike Brearley - England’s Greatest Captain?, Martin Chandler 2012 Cricket Web, and The mind of Mike Brearley, Paul Edwards January 2019, Cricket Monthly

I am very grateful for the fine work these authors have contributed. 

Roy Jenkins

Roy Jenkins, or as he later became, Rt Hon Lord Jenkins of Hillhead, led one of the most influential and colourful British political lives of the 20^th century. He served as President of the European Commission having at different times been a Member of |Parliament for Labour, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the Liberal Democrats. As Chancellor of the Exchequer and Home Secretary in the Wilson and Callaghan governments, he distinguished himself in both roles. Perhaps the most outstanding figure never to become Prime Minister, he was also a brilliant writer and biographer. Alan Johnson said his “books may be read long after his considerable political achievements are forgotten”.

From a Welsh mining family, there are few better examples of British social mobility. Friends gave a dinner for him in 1977 before he left for Brussels. “Only one Labour person was present”, says Johnson, “along with an Astor, a Rothschild, a Bonham Carter and the Chairman of the Royal Opera House. The only link to the great Labour victory of 1945 (when Jenkins first stood for parliament) was the vintage of the wine (Chateau Lafite) and the port (Quinta do Noval)…Jenkins was an apple who fell a fair distance from the tree”.

Early life

Roy Harris Jenkins was born on 11^th November 1920 at Abersychan, Monmouthshire, in southeast Wales. He was an only child. His father, Arthur, was a mineworkers’ union official, who later became President of the South Wales Miners’ Federation, MP for Pontypool, then Parliamentary Private Secretary to Labour leader Clement Attlee. He was briefly a minister in the 1945 government. Roy’s mother, Hattie Harris, was the daughter of a steelworks foreman. Lord (Ian) Wrigglesworth later sent Roy a facsimile of his 1920 birthday Times edition. He was surprised at a small headline celebrating ‘good figures’ on mining deaths - still over 1200 that year.

Young Roy Jenkins

He attended the local Pentwyn Primary School, then Abersychan Grammar School, and University College Cardiff. In 1938 he went to Balliol College, Oxford, taking a first-class degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE) in 1941. Colleagues included Tony Crosland, Ted Heath and Denis Healey - Jenkins became friends with all three. Officer training followed and he became a Captain in the Royal Artillery. In 1944 he joined Bletchley Park as a codebreaker.

Young politician

Jenkins had expected and planned for a political career. He stood aged just 24 as a Labour candidate for Solihull in 1945 and lost. After a brief period at the Industrial and Commercial Finance Corporation, and writing ‘Mr Attlee: An interim Biography’, in 1948 he was elected to the House of Commons in a by-election for the London seat of Southwark Central. At 27 he was the ‘Baby of the House’. Boundary changes caused the seat to be abolished, so in 1950 he moved to Birmingham and was elected MP for Stechford, where he remained until 1977.

It was the age of the political pamphlet. In Fair Shares for the Rich Jenkins advocated a capital levy, abolishing large private incomes, more nationalisation and ending public schools. With characteristic self-deprecation he later described this ‘Robespierrean’ effort of 1951 as “the apogee of my excursion to the left”. He later retreated from this position, arguing wealth redistribution would happen over a generation. He wanted a mixed economy, which many on the left were against. And he opposed the Bevan faction’s foreign policy, wanting Labour’s leadership to take on and defeat the party’s neutralists and pacifists. He said “Neutrality is essentially a conservative policy, a policy of defeat”. Better risk a party split than face “..the destruction, by schism, perhaps for a generation, of the whole progressive movement in the country”.

Clement Attlee

In the 1950s Jenkins authored pamphlets and columns supporting social reforms and an internationalist perspective. In 1959 he was principal sponsor of the liberalising Obscene Publications Act. He also argued perceptively that Britain’s chief danger was "living sullenly in the past, of believing the world has a duty to keep us in the station to which we are accustomed, and showing bitter resentment if it does not do so”. On Britain’s roughly equal economic and military European neighbours, he said, “We would do better to live gracefully with them than to waste our substance by trying unsuccessfully to keep up with the power giants of the modern world”.    

Reading these passages from over 60 years ago it seems astonishing that this common sense platform had to be re-fought on Brexit. And now, yet again, on extricating Britain from Brexit’s dire effects.

Progressive reformer

After Labour’s 1959 election defeat, Jenkins argued for libertarian reforms. The party should abandon further nationalisation (which he rightly saw as unpopular), question its link with the trade unions and consider a closer association with the Liberals. He’d earlier set out a list of progressive reforms - abolishing the death penalty, decriminalising homosexuality, abolishing theatre censorship, liberalising licensing and betting laws, divorce reform, legalising abortion, decriminalising suicide and more liberal immigration laws. He argued people should be able to live their own lives, free of popular prejudice and state interference.

Jenkins was firmly on Labour’s moderate wing and distressed by the sudden death of his friend and hero, party leader, Hugh Gaitskell - despite differences over Europe. 1960-62 his thrust was for the UK to join the European Economic Community - he was Chairman of the Labour Common Market Committee. The party was split on the issue of membership. He also spoke against Labour’s Clause IV, as the standard bearer for the party’s Social Democrats.

Alongside his political activities Jenkins maintained an appetite for writing. He was working on a biography of former Liberal Prime Minister Herbert Asquith. As a friend of his subject’s grandson, Mark Bonham Carter, Jenkins had access to Asquith’s letters to his mistress Venetia Stanley. The book came out in 1964. Widely praised, it’s regarded as a classic.

In office

As an MP for 16 years, Jenkins finally entered government when Labour won the 1964 election. PM Harold Wilson appointed him Aviation Minister. This may sound a junior job but given the scope of Britain’s interests in aviation it wasn’t so then. With technical problems and cost overruns, he cancelled TSR-2. A January1965 reshuffle saw him offered Education and Science but he chose to stay at Aviation. That summer he accepted the Home Office but was not to take it up until December. He was then the youngest Home Secretary since Churchill.

Tony Crosland - had an undergraduate affair with Jenkins

He set about reforming the department’s organisation and operation. Some senior staff departed. Jenkins also redesigned his private office, famously replacing the board listing condemned prisoners. He later reduced the number of police forces from 117 to 49, and brought in two-way radios for the police. His Criminal Justice Act 1967 had stringent shotgun controls, outlawed last minute alibis and introduced majority verdicts, suspended sentences and release under licence.

Roy Jenkins is rightly seen as the key figure in the raft of 60s social reforms. He gave strong support to David Steel’s Private Member’s Bill to legalise abortion, and MP Leo Abse’s bill to decriminalise homosexuality. He abolished flogging in prisons and announced legislation to ban racial discrimination in employment. He said the ‘permissive society’ should be better termed the ‘civilised society’. If people chose different paths for their lives or behaviour, “provided these do not restrict the freedom of others, they should be allowed to do so within a framework of understanding and tolerance”.

Chancellor of the Exchequer

Jenkins was Home Secretary for less than two years - he replaced James Callaghan as Chancellor of the Exchequer after the pound’s devaluation in November 1967. This was pre floating exchange rates and pursuing economic growth depended on restoring sterling’s stability post devaluation. It translated into a deflation programme that we might now call austerity. Jenkins gained a reputation as a tough Chancellor, raising taxes and cutting public spending. He warned Parliament in January 1968 of “two years of hard slog ahead”.

Chancellor of the Exchequer

The budget got a surprisingly warm reception. His efforts to save the pound, set out in his autobiography, make nervous reading. Britain’s reserves were falling and the IMF helped out with a substantial loan. A further sterling crisis in November 1968 prompted extra tax rises, with yet more in the 1969 budget. But the currency markets were gradually settling, and by May, Britain’s current account was in surplus with foreign currency reserves rising quickly. Jenkins had presided over the transformation of the UK’s fiscal and financial position in this 18 month period. Many expected a more generous budget in 1970 but, cautious about the stability of the recovery, he went for a decidedly neutral approach. However Labour lost the June election.

Historians have been kind to Jenkins as Chancellor. Tough but fair, he was one of the century’s best performers in the Treasury. Andrew Marr called him a “most successful Chancellor”. Leading economist Alec Cairncross, then head of the government’s economic service, thought him the “the ablest of the four Chancellors I served”.

Europe

After 1970’s surprise election result, Jenkins was appointed Shadow Chancellor by Wilson and elected Deputy Labour Leader. He fought the anti-European mood sweeping Labour in the early 70s, feeling Britain had no alternative to Europe. After 18 months of bitter argument he led 69 Labour MPs to rebel against the party to support PM Ted Heath taking Britain into the EEC. He later wrote, “I was convinced it was one of the decisive votes of the century…in the context of the first Reform Bill, the repeal of the Corn Laws…the Munich Agreement and the May 1940 votes”. In 1972 he resigned both his Shadow Cabinet and Deputy Leader posts.

Jenkins focused on the burning EEC issue, winning the Charlemagne Prize for promoting European Unity. A September 1972 opinion poll found 35% would vote for a Labour-Liberal Alliance against only 27% for the Conservatives. Meanwhile Jenkins’ series of speeches advertised his Labour leadership credentials. In a book What Matters Now he claimed a “broad-based, international, radical, generous-minded party could quickly seize the imagination of a disillusioned and uninspired British public”. He still thought this could be Labour.    

Britain eventually joined the EEC in January 1973. Heath’s Conservatives lost the 1974 election and Jenkins returned to power as Home Secretary, though was furious with PM Wilson, having been promised the Treasury. He was the key Labour figure campaigning across parties to stay in Europe in June 1975’s referendum. The ‘Yes’ side won easily, by two to one. 

Harold Wilson

He pushed through a tough Prevention of Terrorism Act, after the 1974 IRA Birmingham bombings. Among other things this instituted exclusion orders. The Sex Discrimination Act 1975 and Race Relations Act 1976 were two notable measures passed in his second stint at the Home Office. He served until 1976 when Wilson resigned. Jenkins stood for the party leadership (his third attempt) but came third behind Callaghan who became PM. Despite the win on Europe he was becoming ever more disillusioned with what he saw as Labour's drift to the left. He chose to resign from Parliament and leave British politics to be President of the European Commission, a post he took up in January 1977. 

In Brussels

In Brussels Jenkins supported the development of Economic and Monetary Union, which later led to the Euro. The first President to attend a G8 summit for the Community, he effectively represented the smaller states who had no presence at such meetings. When Margaret Thatcher became PM after 1979’s election, she supposedly considered appointing him Chancellor, given his earlier success in cutting public spending. His last year as Commission President was blighted by a quarrel over Thatcher’s demand for a rebate on Britain’s EEC budget contribution. He saw the row as unnecessary, souring UK-Europe relations.

EEC HQ Berlaymont in 1975

Giving the 1979 Dimbleby Lecture he re-asserted support for a mixed economy spreading the benefits through health and education for a fairer society. And he re-iterated his commitment to libertarianism: “You are in favour of the right of dissent and the liberty of private conduct. You are against unnecessary centralisation and bureaucracy. You want to devolve decision-making whenever you sensibly can…You want the nation to be self-confident and outward-looking, rather than insular, xenophobic and suspicious. You want the class system to fade without being replaced either by an aggressive and intolerant proletarianism or by the dominance of the brash and selfish values of a ‘get rich quick’ society”.

Split from Labour and the SDP

In 1980 Labour adopted a unilateralist defence policy, withdrawal from the EEC, and further nationalisation. Left winger Michael Foot was elected party leader. It was the last straw. In a move long mooted, Jenkins joined former ministers David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams - the ‘Gang of Four’ - in the 'Limehouse Declaration' for a realignment of British politics. In March 1981 they formed the Social Democratic Party. The SDP immediately attracted sizable support across the UK political landscape. Several Labour MPs joined, along with some Conservatives, and large numbers of non-aligned voters. It was a whirlwind. Within a year the SDP was polling at 50%. Jenkins was back as an MP, having won a by-election at Glasgow Hillhead. SDP prospects could hardly have looked better.

The 'Gang of Four' 1981

Mrs Thatcher was at a low point in the opinion polls. Unemployment was over three million and with a tanking economy, her government’s prospects looked poor. But a week after the by-election Argentina invaded the Falklands. The war that followed boosted Conservative fortunes, transforming the political landscape. The SDP’s momentum was checked. An Alliance with the Liberals was formed, doing well in the 1983 election (it won nearly 24% of the vote), despite Jenkins having lost some of his earlier élan. But the new party's high water mark had passed.

David Owen then succeeded Jenkins unopposed as leader. Revenues from North Sea Oil kicked in and with monetarist theory tossed aside, the economy steadily improved. Jenkins was disappointed by Owen’s move to the right. He felt the SDP’s whole spirit and outlook must be against Thatcherism. In 1986 he won the Spectator’s Parliamentarian of the Year award, despite lacking his earlier exuberance. But in the 1987 election Jenkins lost his seat. He decided not to stand again.

SDP campaign rosettes

Jenkins and the ‘Gang of Four’ were criticised then and now for splitting Labour, thus allowing 18 years of Conservative government. It’s said they should have stayed to fight with others to bring Labour back to electability. But this is hard to sustain. Research shows clearly that few 1983 Alliance voters would have gone to Labour. Also, who were Labour’s ‘others’? In reality few bar Healey were heavyweights. The party departed from the extreme only after successive election defeats and in part due to the Lib-Dem effect. When reformed Labour won its 1997 Blair landslide it was the SDP in all but name.

House of Lords, and books

In 1987 Jenkins was elected Chancellor of Oxford University and in 1988 President of the Royal Society of Literature. He joined the House of Lords as Baron Jenkins of Hillhead and was Liberal Democrat leader in the Lords until 1993, when he was appointed to the Order of Merit. In 1994, pleased to see Tony Blair as Labour leader, he warned him “not to embrace the stale dogmas of Thatcherism just when their limitations are becoming obvious”. As PM Blair asked him to chair an independent commission on the voting system. It reported in October 1998 but no action was taken as Blair was sure its recommendations would not get through Cabinet.

Chancellor of Oxford University 1987

Jenkins was unusually shy for a politician. He was also so impractical he couldn’t boil an egg or hang up a picture. But he wrote 19 books, including lauded biographies of Asquith, Gladstone and finally Churchill. He also penned his widely praised 1991 autobiography “A Life at the Centre”. Books were his life. Later his own biographer John Campbell had full access to his papers - diaries, letters and documents - all later handed over to the Bodleian Library. He worked from the Jenkins home, St Amand’s in East Hendred, Oxfordshire.

Private life

Among the material Campbell uncovered was evidence of a gay Oxford student relationship with Labour’s Tony Crosland. But he was polyamorous from the time he met Jennifer. A string of lovers were also family friends and all got on with his wife. These included Jackie Kennedy’s sister Lee Radziwill, plus Leslie Bonham Carter and Lady Caroline Gilmour, the wives of fellow MPs and close friends Mark Bonham Carter and Sir Ian Gilmour. Others included Ann Fleming, wife of 007 author Ian, Barley Allison, diplomat and ex SOE, and Helena Tiné, wife of a London based French diplomat. His friend, author Robert Harris, said that besides Jennifer, Caroline was ‘the one’.

Jenkins always refused to play on what followers saw as impeccable class roots. He earned a reputation as a gourmand who enjoyed fine claret. He nearly always set aside time for lunch with someone he saw as important and convivial. With earnings from his books he wasn’t short of money. He led a pampered life and as Campbell points out, if he had lots of time to read and write, “it was because there was literally nothing else he was required to do except eat, drink and talk”.  

Roy  Jenkins collapsed at home with a heart attack on 5^th January 2003 and died. PM Tony Blair and Labour Chairman John Reid, with Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy, attended the funeral in the 12^th century parish church. The choir of Christ Church, Oxford sang the European Ode to Joy anthem. The bidding, from college dean John Drury, praised the “humanising, civilising, liberating and enlarging effects of his activities as statesman, and the vivacious wisdom of his contemplation of history in his books”. On his gravestone his widow Dame Jennifer chose the simple epitaph ‘Writer and Statesman’.

Sources: By far the best source is John Campbell’s brilliant biography, Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life (London 2014)

Also Jenkins' fine 1991 autobiography, A life at the Centre

I’ve used notes from Alan Johnson’s review of Campbell, too.

I’m very grateful to all these writers for their excellent work

 

Alan Brooke

Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke, as he later became, was a senior officer in the British Army. In the Second World War, he was Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS), the professional head of the UK and Commonwealth forces. In this role he had to co-ordinate British resources and military efforts toward the 1945 Allied victory. As head of the Chiefs of Staff Committee he also had to prepare plans and provide detailed advice for politicians, notably UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill. It was clearly a hugely responsible and demanding task and one he managed with enormous skill. Alanbrooke made what by any standards was an outstanding contribution to the British state. Yet his role is often neglected or even ignored in popular histories and media coverage of WWII.

Early years

Alan Francis Brooke was born on 23^rd July 1883 at Bagnères-de-Bigorre, Hautes-Pyrénées in southern France. Every bit the product of late-Victorian Britain, he was the seventh and youngest child of Sir Victor Brooke, 3rd Baronet, head of a wealthy Anglo-Irish Protestant family from Fermanagh in western Ulster. They had a long record of military service from the 17^th century as the “Fighting Brookes of Colebrook”. His mother was the former Alice Bellingham, second daughter of Sir Alan Bellingham, third Baronet of Castle Bellingham in County Louth. Brooke’s father died of pneumonia age 48 when Alan was just eight years old.

Pau c. 1900

His parents had been living in the area for a while, having left Ireland and settled in a villa at Pau, in the Pyrenees. Alan went to school locally and not to a boarding school, as would normally have been the case for most children of his social class. He stayed in Pau until he was 16. Bi-lingual in French (with a heavy Gascon accent), and English, he spoke both languages very fast. He was also fluent in German. Later he learnt Urdu and Persian.

From a military family the option was clear, if limited. He was sent to England but only just got into the Woolwich Royal Military Academy, coming 65th of 72 examinees. But he progressed, passing out in 17th place. 

Artillery Officer and instructor

On Christmas Eve 1902, 19 year old Alan Brooke was commissioned into the Royal Regiment of Artillery as a second lieutenant. He served in Ireland and India as a young officer before the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Posted to the Western Front with the Royal Artillery he won a reputation for operations planning, later being transferred to the 18^th Division. At the Somme, in 1916, he introduced the ‘creeping barrage’ system, borrowed from the French, to help protect advancing infantry. He was with the Canadians in 1917 when at Vimy the idea was famously proved in a major battle. 1918 saw him appointed the senior artillery staff officer in the First Army. He ended the war as a lieutenant-colonel with the DSO, six times mentioned in despatches.

Battle of Vimy Ridge

In 1919 Brooke attended the first post war course at Camberley Staff College, and served as a staff officer with the 50^th Division from 1920 to 1923. As an instructor at Camberley and then at the Imperial Defence College he got to know most of the officers who became commanders in World War II. From 1929 he was Inspector of Artillery, Director of Military Training, and then General Officer Commanding of the Mobile (later first Armoured) Division. Promoted to lieutenant-general in 1938 he took charge of the Anti-Aircraft Command. There he built a strong relationship with Hugh Dowding, head of Fighter Command, laying a basis for co-operation in the Battle of Britain. In July 1939 Brooke moved to head Southern Command when he was seen as among the Army’s leading generals.

British Corps Commander in World War II 

On the outbreak of war Brooke commanded II Corps in the British Expeditionary Force in France. He was pessimistic about the Allies’ chances against a German offensive and sceptical about the quality, discipline and determination of the French and Belgian forces. He didn’t rate Lord Gort, BEF Commander in Chief, either, whom he thought was obsessed with details and incapable of broad strategic thinking. Gort in turn thought Brooke a pessimist and considered replacing him. Brooke felt his force would likely be outflanked in May 1940 by a Wehrmacht advance along the Meuse but the British High Command dismissed this warning as defeatist.

Troops awaiting evacuation, Dunkirk June 1940 

The II Corps faced rapid German armoured advances after the Allied defeat at Sedan. With the Belgian army capitulating, Brooke and Gen Ritchie acted quickly to cover the BEF retreat, moving Montgomery’s 3^rd Division north to plug a 20 mile gap. II Corps could then withdraw to Dunkirk. Brooke not only saved his own forces but also prevented the Germans from seizing the gap left by the Belgian surrender and capturing the entire BEF. In all, 338,000 British, French and Belgian troops were rescued. Gen Brian Horrocks later argued, “The more I have studied this campaign the clearer it becomes that the man who really saved the BEF was our own corps commander, Gen Brooke...it is only now that I realise fully just how great he was”.

In the midst of the evacuation, Gort ordered Brooke to return home. The Corps was left in Montgomery’s hands. Montgomery said Brooke, overcome with emotion at having to leave his men in this crisis, “broke down and wept”. Tasked with “re-forming new armies” on June 2^nd he was told by Sir John Dill (CIGS) to return to France with a new BEF. Brooke said it was “one of the blackest moments in the war”. 200,000 Allied troops were still based in Brittany but Gen Weygand had told him the French Army was collapsing and could resist no more. Sending further troops was absurd as “the mission had no military value and no hope of success”. Brooke wanted a planned withdrawal to Cherbourg and Brest for transfer to Britain. Churchill objected but Brooke stood firm. His view eventually prevailed.  

Commander UK Home Forces

While his considered stand based on direct experience of the conflict was at odds with Churchill’s gung ho psyche Brooke seemed to gain credit with the PM. He was appointed to command UK Home Forces in charge of the country’s defence preparations against invasion. He developed a mobile reserve to counterattack enemy forces before they were established. By delaying landings as far as possible he thought the situation “far from helpless”. The War Cabinet in fact knew from intelligence and military analysis that a German invasion was highly unlikely and would have been suicidal had it happened. The Germans had done no proper planning, had no suitable landing craft and could not have re-supplied the few troops that managed to land.                 

CIGS Alan Brooke, 1942

Luftwaffe messages had been decrypted and as key loading bays in Holland had been closed in August 1940, it was clear that any invasion idea had been abandoned. Hitler himself was not keen, and provided Britain maintained air superiority - via radar, a high rate of aircraft building and the Battle of Britain victory in August-September 1940 - it was nigh impossible for Germany to succeed. It’s not clear that Brooke realised this until much later. The War Cabinet knew the score but used the threat to galvanise Britain’s people for a long struggle ahead.  

Chief of the Imperial General Staff

In December 1941 Brooke succeeded Dill as Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS). As Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, which he dominated by force of intellect and personality, he headed the overall strategic direction of the British war effort. He was also charged with supervising the military operations of the Free French, Polish, Dutch, Belgian and Czech units under the exiled governments in London. He delegated most of the details to subordinates, and focused on grand strategy, appointing senior commanders, allocating manpower and equipment, and handling relations with allies, notably the US.

In 1940-41 Brooke’s focus had been on reorganising and re-equipping home defence forces. Much of the Army’s equipment, armour and supplies had been left behind in France. His diaries tell of endless trips to inspect defensive units and appoint commanders. He worked hard here while lobbying the government for weapons for his under-armed forces. But from 1942, with the US fully in the war, his main role switched to global strategy. At the London conference in April, he and Churchill apparently misled the Americans into believing they backed an early landing in France, very difficult given the lack of US preparedness and in particular the need for landing craft. This caused some bad feeling with US Chief of Staff George Marshall.  

Relations with US Allies

Brooke’s first thought was for the Mediterranean. Given a shortage of tonnage, by keeping this sea lane free for Allied shipping via the Suez Canal, it saved time and capacity in supply. But he found it hard to convince the Americans of this priority. They saw an imperial mindset at play.  Though he’d been offered the command of British forces in the Middle East and would normally have jumped at the chance, he declined. He felt it was more important to ‘baby sit’ Churchill who was tempted to rash and absurd strategic initiatives. Brooke, rightly, thought he knew better than anyone how to deal with Churchill.

In summer 1942 the PM’s choice to lead the Eighth Army in North Africa was William Gott. Brooke’s was Bernard Montgomery, his ex-pupil and protégé. Gott was killed in a plane crash so the job went to Montgomery, to Brooke’s relief. Despite the Allies’ success in North Africa, it was clear that a second front in France would be difficult. In January 1943 at Casablanca the endless arguments between Britain and the US were seemingly resolved. The Allies would invade Sicily under Dwight Eisenhower’s command, effectively postponing a French invasion. With US forces still smaller than Britain’s Roosevelt leant on his military, some of whom wanted to confine themselves to the Pacific theatre. The compromise was brokered by Dill, Chief of the UK’s Washington Staff Mission. Brooke was very grateful to him.   

Eisenhower, Churchill and Brooke, on HMS Kelvin

At times Churchill seemed ambivalent on this crucial question. But Brooke stood firm, confident he was backed by logic. First it was vital to defeat Nazi Germany. The Allies hadn’t yet the forces or supply lines strong enough. With the Atlantic U-Boat depredations on Allied shipping, there was a shortage of a million tonnes. By keeping the Mediterranean and Suez open, the available capacity would be roughly doubled, mainly due to time saving with importing supplies from India and the Far East. The Allies would all benefit. On top of this, Axis member Italy might be knocked out. And it would at least take some pressure off Russia, where Stalin was screaming for a second front.

In the strategy meetings throughout 1942 and 1943 the atmosphere was often heated. Brooke was terse, with sharp opinions, quick in mind and with clipped speech. It didn’t always go down well with the Americans. In one instance a US General demanded an invasion against well trained and equipped German forces at what seemed the shortest French route. He exclaimed that these landings would end the war. Replied Brooke, “Yes, but not necessarily with the result we want”.

Brooke, Churchill and Montgomery 

Brooke was clear that the Allies would not be ready in 1943. This was later confirmed by US Gen Bradley. The problem was explaining and justifying it to the War Cabinet, but it seems this was relatively easy. The bigger difficulty was with the US military, and most of all, Stalin and the Soviets. Some aid was reaching them from the US and UK - including via the dangerous Arctic convoy route - but Stalin, under enormous pressure from losses to the Nazi war machine, remained boorishly ungrateful. Brooke feared a Soviet collapse, but his admiration for Stalin was among his poorest judgements.

The Churchill Burden

Still, Churchill was Brooke’s heaviest burden, a cross he felt he had to bear for the whole of the war. He clearly admired Churchill for the power of his personality, his rhetorical flair in the English language, handling the Americans, and his ability to unite most of the country. But Brooke spent much time and effort dealing with his foibles, his ‘strategic ideas’, and his cavalier working style - long heavy drinking spells in Churchill’s company at home and abroad, trying to save the war effort from the PM’s wild fancies. The stress is clear from reading his diaries.

From October 1943 Admiral Cunningham was a firm ally among the Chiefs of Staff. Still, when Churchill’s many absurd notions clashed with military reality it was Brooke who always confronted the PM. Churchill’s obsession with Norway kept re-appearing and he was keen on other fanciful initiatives - like Madagascar, the Greek islands and Sumatra. All these ideas were strategically useless and would have cost precious lives and resources. Brooke had to spend a lot of time and effort to kill them off. It all played on his nerves. 

Problems with colleagues

Montgomery was his protégé and Brooke liked and defended him against criticism from the Americans and Churchill. Montgomery was slow, famously never advancing unless he had superior manpower, air power and fire power. This annoyed the Americans in Italy and after the D-Day invasion. Brooke backed Montgomery, but also frequently reprimanded his socially inept and egotistical colleague. He was inclined to be rude and wildly undiplomatic to the American allies, notably over the Battle of the Bulge. Brooke also believed Operation Market Garden (Arnhem) to be an error of judgement - it would have been better to secure Antwerp first than to drive through Holland. He also thought Gen Alexander ‘not bright’ and Mountbatten, with his ice battleship illusions, a waste of time.    

Gen Montgomery

Brooke had hoped to take command of the Allied invasion of France. He said Churchill had promised him this three times. The job went to Eisenhower. The US’ contribution had overtaken that of the UK by then, so it was inevitable. But Brooke felt he’d been passed over and resented the way Churchill had let him know. His 10 September 1944 diary entry reads: ...the wonderful thing is that ¾ of the population of the world imagine that Churchill is one of the Strategists of History, a second Marlborough, and the other ¼ have no idea what a public menace he is and has been throughout the war!”.

Post War

Brooke left the Army in 1945. His diaries were published in 1959. Lord Alanbrooke as he now was, had not planned this but wanted to correct the writings of others, including Churchill, who had taken the credit for Alanbrooke’s work. The editor, Arthur Bryant, cut out much source material. The work is now seen as ‘faltering under the weight of heavy editing and inadequate context’. But many of those criticised were still living. Churchill, almost deified by the public, didn’t appreciate it. In 2001 Alex Danchev of Keele, and Daniel Todman of Cambridge University published a revised, well regarded version.

Viscount Alanbrooke 1945

The Brooke family had moved into a house at Hartley Wintney, near Aldershot. They were not well off and later moved to the gardener’s cottage. Brooke’s first wife was Ulster neighbour Jane Richardson. They had two children, but Jane died after a car crash in 1925 when Alan had been driving. He blamed himself throughout his life. In 1929 he married Benita Lees and they had two children, Kathleen and Victor. Kathleen died as a result of a riding accident in 1961. Brooke took various posts in the private sector and among other activities followed his interest in ornithology and photography.

Brooke died at home of a heart attack on 17^th June 1963. He’s buried in the local churchyard. Never deferential, but imperious in handling those around him, he kept a ‘stern countenance and air of patrician authority’. His ‘unrelenting focus, work ethic and ability to manage stress’, with his composure and imperturbability, impressed his peers. He may seem to have lacked what we now call emotional intelligence. But as a kind and good man he relied on logic, even in the toughest meetings. Overall his near obliteration from the myths of British folk memory is disappointing. The country owes him a huge debt.

Sources: I've drawn on a multiplicity of accounts and memoirs, but the chief and best source is The Alanbrooke Diaries, 2001, edited by Danchev and Todman. I'm very grateful to these authors for their excellent work, having also read Bryant's earlier version along with other diaries.

Harold Ridley

Harold Ridley was a 20^th century English ophthalmologist. His experience in Britain during World War II, and later in Africa and Burma, led him to launch a revolutionary new approach to cataract surgery. He implanted the world’s first intraocular lens (IOL), the start of an era of innovation, inspiration and challenge in the field of ophthalmology. His work, against a hostile background and the disdain and outright opposition of professional colleagues, was to prove hugely influential at a practical level. His treatment would, directly and indirectly, save the sight of at least 50 million people. It was said, “He changed the world, so that we might better see it”.

Early years and education

Sir Nicholas Harold Lloyd Ridley (as he was later to become) was born in the village of Kibworth Harcourt, Leicestershire, on 10^th July 1906. His father was Nicholas Charles Ridley, a naval surgeon who specialised in ophthalmology. His mother was Margaret, née Parker. Harold was the family’s eldest son. His younger brother, perhaps curiously, was called Olden. Young Harold had a stammer which he was largely able to manage. As a child he supposedly met and sat on the lap of Florence Nightingale, a close friend of his mother. A poor communicator but with a strong practical bent, it seems he usually asked the right questions and ended up finding practical solutions. He made several toys as a child and when aged seven told his mother he wanted to be an inventor.

Moorfields Eye Hospital

He was sent to the public school, Charterhouse, and then went to university at Pembroke College, Cambridge from 1924 to 1927, where he read natural science. He followed this with medical training at the major London teaching hospital, St Thomas’. Harold completed his studies in medicine there in 1930. He specialised in his father’s discipline, ophthalmology, and went on to work as a surgeon at both St Thomas’ and the specialist Moorfields Eye Hospital in London. One of his patients was a skilled worker whose career was threatened by a traumatic cataract. Ridley told his mentor Mr A Cyril Hudson, “How nice it would be to put a new lens in his eye”.

Eye surgeon

Ridley had six months of experience as a casualty officer, a year of general surgery, then a year as ship’s surgeon in different vessels, followed by an 18 months formal ophthalmology residency training at Moorfields. In 1938 he was promoted, gaining the coveted post of full surgeon and permanent consultant at Moorfields. At age 32, it was what he had long wanted and what his background and career had been leading up to.

With World War II starting a year later, Ridley treated many patients, notably RAF pilots with eye injuries. In August 1940 pilot Ft. Lieut. Gordon ‘Mouse’ Cleaver forgot to pick up his goggles when changing his damaged Hurricane for a replacement during a Luftwaffe attack. He was then shot down and with no protection, was blinded as Perspex fragments from the cockpit canopy penetrated both his eyes. The first words Cleaver spoke to a friend visiting him at the military hospital were, “Jack, tell them to wear their goggles”.

Perspex pieces from a German plane

Under treatment for several years at Moorfields, Cleaver had about 18 surgical procedures on his eyes and face, to try to preserve some vision. Many of these were performed by Ridley, mainly to remove Perspex pieces that had gone in his eyes or embedded in the ocular coats. Eventually Cleaver’s left eye was saved. This was when Ridley made the historic observation that the acrylic pieces did not seem to elicit any inflammatory reaction as did glass. He saw the same in other pilots’ eyes with similar injuries. His earlier idea of implanting a lens came back. It was probably the Eureka moment.

War service and wider experience

In May 1941 Ridley married Elisabeth Jane Weatherill, who was 10 years younger than him. But there was no opportunity to settle down, as he was temporarily assigned to the Royal Army Medical Corps, and posted first to the Gold Coast (Ghana) in West Africa. The location was free of war action which depressed Ridley as he realised his surgical experience would be wasted there. He also believed that Sir Stewart Duke Elder, doyen of British ophthalmology, and later a fierce opponent of Ridley’s methods, was behind the transfer. It may be that Elder was keen to remove Ridley from London, where he might have more freedom to try out his ideas.

While in Africa, Ridley led important research into onchocerciasis (river blindness) an endemic disease in parts of the country. Having had his interest in the problem stimulated by Brig. GM Findlay, he travelled north overland with Cpt. John Holden, examining patients.  90% had onchocerciasis and 10% were blind. Ridley recorded his observations of the retinal fundus in primitive conditions using water colour painting and photography. Back in Accra he finished the work. Biographer David Apple said, “The attention he called to this disease constitutes one of Ridley’s major contributions. His monograph “Ocular onchocerciasis”, published in 1945 in a supplement to the British Journal of Ophthalmology, was a landmark.”

Harold Ridley in the Gold Coast (Ghana) 1943

In 1944 he published a short paper in the same journal on spitting snakes and the composition and action of snake venom in general. From his Gold Coast experience, Ridley described snake venom ophthalmia in a rural labourer caused by a Black-necked cobra. Ridley treated the man and followed through until after a week the eye had fully recovered. He discussed the therapeutic use of snake venom and speculated that in future diluted venom could be used in some cases of ophthalmic surgery.

After 18 months in Africa, in 1944 Ridley was transferred to India. In his own words, “In Calcutta we basically had nothing to do with no assignments…Finally I was transferred to Rangoon, Burma, where life began again. I treated over 200 released allied prisoner of war, who suffered from nutritional amblyopia. Many had worked on the Burma railway. Starved and ill-treated, they had developed sudden central scotoma, relieved by good diet if available”. Some made a partial recovery in six weeks, but advanced ones proved irreversible. His therapy anticipated today’s use of multivitamins in such patients. The Burma theatre offered the first large population study of nutritional amblyopia. Of 500 cases, Ridley personally treated 200.

Lens replacement question

Back in post war London, a student watching Ridley perform a cataract surgery in 1947 said it was a pity it couldn’t be replaced with a clear lens. The old heretical question had returned. Ridley knew it was time to change the answer. There was now no holding back.

In 1948 at an apparently undercover meeting in a car off London’s Cavendish Square, Harold Ridley and his friend John Pike, an optical scientist at lens specialists Rayner and Keeler, agreed the principles of the first IOL surgery. Perspex would be the material and for the implant site Ridley rejected the more accessible anterior chamber, insisting it should be “just where nature had placed a biconvex lens throughout the animal kingdom”.  Pike roped in his friend Dr. John Holt from ICI to make some pure high quality Perspex. And critically the three agreed on no patent - they would forgo any financial reward.

A posterior chamber IOL (with haptics)

It took Ridley a year to find the right guinea pig. The subjectt had to have a unilateral cataract. The other eye should be working well. The patient needed to understand the risks and, should the operation fail, be prepared to lose the defective eye. At last a 45 year old nurse, Elizabeth Attfield, with a cataract in her left eye, agreed and was selected. The lens was a simple disc with a peripheral groove made by Rayner from Perspex clinical quality (CQ). It cost Ridley under £1. 

Controversial implantation treatment

History was made in the afternoon of November 29^th, 1949. The procedure for which Harold Ridley had been preparing for years was finally carried out in secrecy at St Thomas’ Hospital. It was the first part of a two stage exercise, and the IOL implantation actually took place at the second stage on February 8^th 1950. The early lenses were too accurate in copying the radii of curvature of the human lens and the first patients became highly myopic. But this problem was soon corrected and later implants were adjusted accordingly. Eight were done, with three at Moorfields, without publicity over the next year.

Why the secrecy? Ridley knew the procedure would be controversial and the treatment would face professional opposition. He’d hoped to maintain secrecy for two years until he thought he’d be sure of the results. But the news got out, so he published first in the low profile ‘St Thomas Hospital Reports’, then later in the Lancet and BJO. But the head of research at Moorfields, and the most powerful figure in British Ophthalmology, Sir Stewart Duke Elder, had been kept in the dark. Ridley told Elder he saw no reason to inform him. An attenuated row ensued and Ridley was never forgiven.    

Ridley posterior chamber IOL

In July 1951 he presented his work at the Oxford Ophthalmological Conference. He was accompanied by two implant patients whose vision had recovered and he’d prepared a cine film of one of the operations. But the lecture was badly received. Some senior audience members refused even to look at the patients and the film was not shown. Ridley’s group drove back quietly, missing a planned dinner. There was an even more hostile US reaction at the 1952 American Academy of Ophthalmology session in Chicago, where comments from some senior professional figures were particularly scathing.

30 years of ostracism 

Ridley hoped the Oxford meeting would be a landmark in the history of Ophthalmology. Says Apple, “Indeed, it was a landmark day, but not in the way he expected. Instead it was the beginning of more than 30 years of trials and tribulations leading to health problems that plagued him for the rest of his life”. Some leading ophthalmologists repeated the simplistic mantra that ‘our job was to take things out of eyes, not put things into them’. The long period of abuse, ridicule and ostracism caused Ridley depression, for which he needed medication. 

Ridley performed around 1000 IOL implants with reasonable success.  But about 20% had complications from poor fixation of the rather heavy lens, and some sub optimal surgery. He was forced to abandon the procedure given professional opposition and fear of litigation. But as Dr. Biju John points out, “Had Dr. Ridley access to things such as viscoelastics, operating microscopes and capsulorhexis principles, the story would have played out differently”. But the delay deprived a whole generation of patients of the benefits from IOL treatment.

Harold Ridley (around 1980)

Fortunately people like Choyce, Epstein, Binkhorst and Fyodrov kept the faith and were keen to carry Ridley’s work forward. Indeed Peter Choyce was Ridley’s favourite protégé. First generation anterior chamber IOLs in the 50s were followed by iris-supported lenses, and finally from 1975 it was back to the posterior chamber IOL design of today. This was Ridley’s original plan with a central disc smaller and much lighter. By 1980 posterior chamber IOLs gained FDA approval and Ridley was vindicated in all respects.  

Reputation recovered

As his original plans, duly modified, became standard treatment, Ridley’s reputation recovered. At a European Intraocular Lens Council meeting in 1986 he’s reported to have said, “All you people have enjoyed your implant work, I’m sure. I suffered for it”. But he began to receive some overdue honours and recognition. In 1986 he was elected to the Royal Society in London and three years later was awarded Doctor of Humane Letters by the Medical University of South Carolina. The Gullstrand Medal was conferred on him in 1992 by the Swedish Society of Medicine, and David Apple’s biography was published in 1996. In 1999 he was honoured in Seattle by the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery.

These are just a few of his international public decorations. He’d retired from NHS hospital service earlier, in 1971. In 1966 he’d founded with Peter Choyce a body later called the International Intra-Ocular Implant Club, to promote research in the field and be a forum to exchange professional ideas. Among his earlier innovations was the televising of operations. Apparently this hadn’t been done before but proved a long term benefit. Some teaching hospitals these days have as standard fibre optic circuits to show operations for student training. 

Modern St Thomas'Hospital

Ridley developed cataracts in both eyes as he grew older. His own 1989 and 1990 lens implantation treatment was at St Thomas’.  Thus he benefited from his own invention and pioneering operational procedure. He was pleased it would be done in the hospital where he’d performed the first operation. He asked for a general anaesthetic, explaining to surgeon Michael Falcon, “Well my boy, if I am awake, I will be telling you what to do all the time”.

Honours

In February 2000 Harold Ridley was awarded a knighthood. It followed years of lobbying by biographer David Apple, leading surgeon friends and Donald Munro, of the Rayner Company in Hove. He was 92 and partly deaf at the investiture. When asked what the Queen had said to him he replied with a smile, “I couldn’t hear a damn thing!” He specified how he wished to be remembered. In his inimitable style he said, “I am going to have on my tombstone: He cured Aphakia. People are then going to say, “Who was Aphakia?” He didn’t get this, but the millions all over the world whose sight was restored will be a pretty adequate tribute.    

Sir Nicholas Harold Lloyd Ridley FRS died aged 94 on 25th May 2001 in Salisbury. He was buried at Swinstead in Lincolnshire. His widow Elisabeth lived on for nine years. They had a happy family life with three children, Margaret, Nicholas and David. Nicholas serves as Chairman of the Ridley Eye Foundation, a charity set up in the 1960s to raise funds for cataract surgery in developing countries and to treat avoidable blindness.   

Plaque recording Ridley's first IOL implant 

A plaque at St Thomas’ marks the first IOL implantation. In 2010 the Royal Mail issued a commemorative series to mark ‘Medical Breakthroughs’. Designed by Howard Brown, the 67p stamp depicted artificial lens implant surgery pioneered by Sir Harold Ridley 1949. A Heritage blue plaque was installed in 2012 at Kibworth Harcourt. A plaque in the gardens of his alma mater Pembroke College, reads ‘RIDLEY’S WALK …placed in memory of Sir Harold Ridley, pioneer of intraocular lens surgery’. 

Commermorative Royal Mail stamp

Ridley was an irrepressible and innovative man who was never short of ideas. A rounded personality with a sense of humour, he used his gifts not to enrich himself, but to benefit humanity.   

 

My two most important sources to whom I’m extremely grateful are:

David J Apple (2006) Sir Harold Ridley and his fight for sight: he changed the world so we might better see it   

Dr. C Biju John, Dept of Ophthalmology, Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India (2020) Sir Harold Ridley and the intraocular foreign body that made history