Joseph Grimond, Baron Grimond, CH, CBE, TD, PC (/ˈɡrɪmənd/; 29 July 1913 – 24 October 1993) was a British politician, leader of the Liberal Party for eleven years from 1956 to 1967 and again briefly on an interim basis in 1976.
Grimond was a long-term supporter of Scottish home rule; and, during his leadership, he successfully advocated for the Liberal Party to support the abolition of Britain's nuclear arsenal.[1]
After serving as a major in World War II, he was selected by the Liberal Party to contest Orkney and Shetland, the most northerly constituency in the United Kingdom. He narrowly missed capturing the seat in 1945 but won it at the 1950 general election. The Liberals and their successors, the Liberal Democrats, have retained the seat continuously to the present day.
Grimond continued to represent the constituency until he retired from politics in 1983, and regularly polled more than 60% of the vote.
Leader of the Liberal Party
The party Grimond inherited from former leader Clement Davies had commanded barely 2.5% of the vote at the general election of 1955, but even that figure amounted to a modest revival in Liberal Party fortunes compared with 1951. This progress increased under the leadership of Grimond who proved himself to be a man of considerable personal charm and intelligence, with substantial gifts as public speaker and as an author. Widely respected as well as trusted, he ensured that by the time he left the leadership in 1967, the Liberals had once again become a notable political force.
It was during his tenure that the first post-war Liberal revival took place: under Grimond's leadership, the Liberals doubled their seat tally and won historic by-elections at Torrington in 1958 (the first by-election gain by the Liberal Party for 29 years), Orpington in 1962, and Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles in 1965.
In 1967, having led the party through three general elections, he made way for a younger leader, the charismatic Jeremy Thorpe. In 1976, when Thorpe was forced to resign because of a scandal, Grimond stepped in as interim leader until the election of a replacement, David Steel.[4]
Upon leaving the House of Commons, he was created a life peer as Baron Grimond, of Firth in the County of Orkney on 12 October 1983.[5] He remained devoted to his former parliamentary constituency, and was buried in Finstown on Orkney.
Marriage and children
In 1938, Grimond married liberal politician Laura Bonham Carter (1918–1994). His wife was the granddaughter of the former Liberal Prime Minister H. H. Asquith, and the daughter of the influential Liberal politician and peer Violet Asquith (1887–1969) and her politician and civil servant husband, Maurice Bonham Carter. Laura Grimond was also the sister of another life peer, Mark Bonham Carter (1922–1994), who won the 1958 by-election at Torrington.
The couple had four children:
(Joseph) Andrew Grimond (26 March 1939 – 23 March 1966),[6] a sub-editor of The Scotsman, who lived in Edinburgh until his suicide at the age of 26.
Grizelda "Gelda" (Jane) Grimond (1942–2017), who had a daughter Katherine (born 1973) by the film and stage director Tony Richardson. Her daughter, Katherine, is married to Steven Hess, and had three children as of 2017.
John (Jasper) Grimond (born October 1946), a former foreign editor of The Economist as Johnny Grimond, now writer at large for the publication, who in 1973 married Kate Fleming (born 1946), eldest daughter of the writer Peter Fleming and actress Celia Johnson, and the couple have three children together. He is the main author of The Economist Style Guide.[7]
(Thomas) Magnus Grimond (born 13 June 1959),[8] journalist and financial correspondent, married to travel author Laura Grimond (née Raison), and has four children.
Writings
The Liberal Future (Faber and Faber, London, 1959)
The Liberal Challenge (Hollis and Carter, London, 1963)
(with Brian Nevel) The Referendum (Rex Collings, London, 1975)
The Common Welfare (Temple Smith, London, 1978)
Memoirs (Heinemann, London, 1979)
A Personal Manifesto (Martin Robertson, Oxford, 1983)
The St. Andrews of Jo Grimond (Alan Sutton, St. Andrew's, 1992)
Grimond was also a prolific writer of pamphlets: see the McManus biography (below) for a complete list of publications.