Peter Fleetwood-Hesketh
Gavin Stamp writes: Peter Fleetwood- Hesketh seemed a fantastic creature from another age. Only with his death last week shortly after his 80th birthday did some surprising facts emerge about his life. It remains difficult to imagine that contrived, elegant dilettante with impeccable Edwar- dian manners ever having been parachuted into occupied France with the SAS. He was very brave. Nor was he just a dilettante, although it is a pity that he was not obliged to do more. His excellent Murray's Guide to his native Lancashire illustrates some of his modest little buildings, but he modestly omitted to refer to their architect. He was also a devout Anglican of the old school and a stalwart of the Prayer Book Society and of St Giles-in-the-Fields, where the language of 1662 can still be heard. It is said that when clergymen were being consi- dered for the living at Hale, of which he was patron, Peter only asked two ques- tions: what they thought about the Prayer Book and about Rhodesia. He was proud
• of such things as flaying been High Sheriff of Lancashire, but he was no roaring snob. He remained vigorous until almost the end. Less than a year ago he was dancing the polka with my wife at the Victorian Society Ball. But, as with Disraeli, that trim waist needed a little help and it was surprising to see a head of raven-black hair on a man of 79. Peter was in the great tradition of English dandyism. A fall in his last year left him with a neck brace, but even that could be turned to advantage. A friend saw him one day, after lunch, dressed immaculately in an overcoat with a silk scarf around the brace, irresistibly reminiscent of the high stock of Beau Brummell. This he knew, and as he walked slowly along he admired the effect in every shop window that he passed.
The beatification of Lord Stockton pro- ceeds with chilling haste. Mr William Safire informs readers of his column in the New York Times that 'a generation ago, when it was revealed that . . . John Pro- fumo had lied to Parliament, Harold Mac- millan, the Prime Minister, honourably resigned.'
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