Paddy Ashdown

Jeremy John Durham Ashdown, Baron Ashdown of Norton-sub-HamdonTemplate:Efn (27 February 1941Template:Snd22 December 2018), better known as Paddy Ashdown, was a British politician and diplomat who served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 1988 to 1999. Internationally, he is recognised for his role as High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2002 to 2006, following his vigorous lobbying for military action against Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

Ashdown had an interpretership qualification in Mandarin and was fluent in several other languages, including Malay, German, French and Bosnian.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> After serving as a Royal Marine and Special Boat Service officer and as an intelligence officer in the UK security services, Ashdown was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Yeovil in 1983 before retiring in 2001.

Ashdown was appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG) in the 2006 New Year Honours and Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in the 2015 New Year Honours. In 2017, Ashdown was appointed Officer of the Legion of Honour by the French government. Template:TOC limit

Early life and career

Ashdown was the eldest of seven children: four brothers and two sisters.<ref name="Reuter-five-facts">Template:Cite news</ref> He was born in New Delhi, British India,<ref name="OHR-CV">Template:Cite web</ref> on 27 February 1941<ref>Template:Cite bookTemplate:ISBN?</ref><ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Link needed</ref> to a family of soldiers and colonial administrators who spent their lives in India.<ref name="Action man bows out">Template:Cite news</ref> His father was a lapsed Catholic, and his mother a Protestant. His mother (née Hudson) was a nurse in the Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Full citation needed Ashdown's father, John William Richard Durham Ashdown (1909–1980), was a British Indian Army officer who served in the 14th Punjab Regiment and the Royal Indian Army Service Corps, and in 1944 attained the rank of temporary lieutenant colonel.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Efn

Ashdown was primarily brought up in Northern Ireland, where his father bought a farm in 1945<ref name="OHR-CV" /> near Comber, County Down.<ref name="indep-edu">Template:Cite newsTemplate:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref> He was educated first at a local primary school, then as a weekly boarder at Garth House Preparatory School in Bangor<ref name="indep-edu" /> and from age 11 at Bedford School in England, where his accent earned him the nickname "Paddy".<ref name="indep-edu" />

Royal Marines and Special Boat Section

After his father's business collapsed, Ashdown passed the naval scholarship examination to pay for his school fees,<ref name="TLCS">Template:Cite news</ref> but left before taking A-levels and joined the Royal Marines in 1959.<ref name="indep-edu" /> He served until 1972<ref name="OHR-CV" /> and retired with the rank of captain. He served in Borneo during the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation and the Persian Gulf,<ref name="Reuter-five-facts" /> before training as a Swimmer Canoeist in 1965, after which he joined the elite Special Boat Section (now named the Special Boat Service) and commanded a Section in the Far East.<ref name="OHR-CV" /> He then went to Hong Kong in 1967 to undertake a full-time interpreter's course in Chinese,<ref name="TLCS" /> and returned to the UK in 1970 when he was given command of a Royal Marine company in Belfast.<ref name="OHR-CV" />

Intelligence officer and diplomat

Ashdown left the Royal Marines to join the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS or MI6).<ref name="TLCS" /><ref name="Waugh-Standard">Template:Cite news</ref> As diplomatic cover, he worked for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as first secretary to the United Kingdom mission to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.<ref name="Roth-Guardian">Template:Cite news</ref> At the UN, Ashdown was responsible for relations with several UN organisations, involved in the negotiation of several international treaties, and some aspects of the Helsinki Accords in 1975.<ref name="LibDem-WhosWho">Template:Cite web</ref>

Political career

While in the Marines, Ashdown had been a supporter of the Labour Party but switched support to the Liberal Party in 1975. He had a comfortable life in Switzerland, where he lived with his wife Jane and their two children, Simon and Katherine, in a large house on the shores of Lake Geneva, enjoying plenty of time for sailing, skiing and climbing.<ref name="Roth-Guardian" /> Ashdown decided to enter politics after the UK had two general elections in one year (those of February and October 1974) and the Three-Day Week.<ref name="TLCS" /> He said that, "most of my friends thought it was utterly bonkers" to leave the diplomatic service, but that he had "a sense of purpose".<ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Dead link</ref>

In 1976 Ashdown was selected as the Liberal Party's prospective parliamentary candidate in his wife's home constituency of Yeovil in Somerset,<ref name="Roth-Guardian" /> and took a job with Normalair Garrett, then part of the Yeovil-based Westland Group. Yeovil's Liberal candidate had been placed second in the February 1974<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and third in the October 1974 general elections;<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Ashdown's objective was to "squeeze" the local Labour vote to enable him to defeat the Conservatives,<ref name="Roth-Guardian" /> who had held the seat since its creation in 1918.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He subsequently worked for Tescan, and was unemployed for a time after that firm's closure in 1981, before becoming a youth worker with Dorset County Council's Youth Service, working on initiatives to help the young unemployed.<ref name="Action man bows out" /><ref name="LibDem-WhosWho" /> That position being an unpaid "volunteer" one, Ashdown was at the time classified as "long-term unemployed", having applied unsuccessfully for 150 jobs.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Member of Parliament

At the 1979 general election, which returned the Conservatives to power, Ashdown regained second place, establishing a clear lead of 9% over the Labour candidate.<ref name="Kimber-1979">Template:Cite news</ref> The Conservative majority of 11,382<ref name="Kimber-1979" /> was still large enough to be regarded as a safe seat when the sitting MP John Peyton stood down at the 1983 general election to be made a life peer. Ashdown had gained momentum after his years of local campaigning.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The Labour vote fell to only 5.5% and Ashdown won the seat with a majority of over 3,000,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> a swing from the Conservatives of 11.9% against a national swing of 4% to the Conservatives.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In Parliament

Ashdown had long been on his party's social democratic wing, supporting the 1977 Lib–Lab pact,<ref name="Roth-Guardian" /> and the SDP–Liberal Alliance. In the early 1980s, he was a prominent campaigner against the deployment in Europe of American nuclear-armed cruise missiles, describing them at a Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament rally in Hyde Park in 1983 as "the front end of the whole anti-nuclear struggle. It is the weapon we Template:Em to stop."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Shortly after entering the House of Commons, he was appointed SDP–Liberal Alliance spokesman on trade and industry and then on education.<ref name="LibDem-WhosWho" /> He opposed the privatisation of the Royal Ordnance Factories in 1984, criticised the Thatcher government in 1986 for allowing the United States to bomb Libya from UK bases, and campaigned against the loss of trade union rights by workers at GCHQ in 1987.<ref name="Roth-Guardian" />

Leader of Liberal Democrats

File:PaddyAshdownCampaigning.jpg

Ashdown in Chippenham during the 1992 general election campaign

When the Liberal Party merged in 1988 with the Social Democrats to form the Social and Liberal Democrats (their name shortened in 1989 to "Liberal Democrats"), he was elected as the new party's leader and made a Privy Councillor in January 1989.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Ashdown led the Liberal Democrats into two general elections, in 1992 and 1997, and three European Parliament elections, in 1989, 1994 and 1999. The Lib Dems failed to win any seats in the 1989 European Parliament election. They recorded a net loss of two seats in the 1992 general election when the party was still recovering from the after-effects of the 1988 merger. In 1994, the party gained its first two Members of the European Parliament.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> At the 1997 election, the Liberal Democrats won 46 seats, their best performance since the Liberal Party in the 1920s. However, they took a smaller share of the vote than in the 1992 election.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> While the Liberal Democrats vote share decreased in the 1999 European Parliament election, the move from first-past-the-post to the D'Hondt method saw the party make a net gain of 8 seats.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Between 1993 and 1997, he was a notable proponent of cooperation between the Liberal Democrats and "New Labour" and had regular secret meetings with Tony Blair to discuss the possibility of a coalition government. This was despite Labour's opinion poll showings from late 1992 onwards, virtually all suggesting that they would gain a majority at the next election, particularly in the first year or so of Blair's leadership following his appointment in mid-1994. The discussions began in early 1993, while the party was still being led by Blair's predecessor John Smith, who died suddenly in May 1994. After Blair was elected as Labour leader, the talks continued.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

There was no need for a coalition, as the 1997 general election ended in a Labour landslide victory. The election also saw a breakthrough for the Liberal Democrats despite receiving fewer votes than in 1992; they increased their representation from 18 to 46. A "Joint Cabinet Committee" (JCC), including senior Labour and Liberal Democrat politicians, was then created to discuss the implementation of the two parties' shared priorities for constitutional reform; its remit was later expanded to include other issues on which Blair and Ashdown saw scope for cooperation between the two parties. Ashdown's successor as Liberal Democrat leader, Charles Kennedy, deliberately allowed the JCC to slip into abeyance until it effectively stopped meeting.<ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref>

Resignation and peerage

Ashdown announced his intention to resign as Leader of the Liberal Democrats on 20 January 1999,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> departing on 9 August that year following 11 years in the role, and was succeeded by Charles Kennedy.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In mid-1999, there was speculation that he would be appointed the new Secretary General of NATO; his lack of governmental experience meant that doubts were raised about his suitability. The post was ultimately filled by defence secretary George Robertson.<ref name="Fitchett">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Ulbrich">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Whitney">Template:Cite news</ref>

He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in 2000<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> and after retiring from the Commons one month previously, he was created a life peer, the peerage being gazetted on 16 July 2001 as that of Baron Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon, of Norton-sub-Hamdon in the County of Somerset.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> In the 2001 election, the Yeovil seat was retained for the Liberal Democrats by David Laws. Likewise, in 2001, the University of Bath conferred on Ashdown an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.<ref name="UB">Template:Cite web</ref>

He was the subject of This Is Your Life in 2001, when he was surprised by Michael Aspel at BBC Television Centre.<ref>Template:Cite episode</ref>

High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina

After leaving frontline British politics, he accepted the post of the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina on 27 May 2002,<ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref> reflecting his long-time advocacy of international intervention in that region. He succeeded Wolfgang Petritsch in the position created under the Dayton Agreement. During his time as High Representative between 2002 and 2006,<ref name="auto">Template:Cite journal</ref> he strengthened the central state institutions, brought in statewide legal bodies such as the State Investigation and Protection Agency and brought the two ethnic armies under a central civilian command, and moved Bosnia-Herzegovina toward EU integration.<ref name="auto" /><ref>Template:Cite press release</ref> He was sometimes denigrated as "the Viceroy of Bosnia" by critics of his work as High Representative.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Witness for the prosecution at Milošević trial

On 14 March 2002, Ashdown testified as a witness for the prosecution at the trial of Slobodan Milošević at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.<ref name="pages2262-2406">Template:Cite web</ref> He said that he was on the Kosovo–Albania border near Junik in June 1998.<ref name="pages2262-2406" /> From this location, through his binoculars, Ashdown claimed to have seen Serbian forces shelling several villages.<ref name="pages2262-2406" /> In July 2005, a defence witness, General Božidar Delić, claimed by demonstrating with a topographical map of the area that Ashdown could not have been able to see the areas that he claimed to be able to see as hills, mountains and thick woods would have obstructed his view.<ref>Template:Cite web Template:Cite web</ref> After the Delić claims, Ashdown supplied the Tribunal with grid coordinates and a cross-section of the ground indicating that he could see the locations concerned.<ref name="pages44650-44764">Template:Cite web</ref> These coordinates indicated he was on the Kosovo–Albania border, which was a sealed border at the time.<ref name="pages44650-44764" /> The prosecution also used new maps and topographical cross-sections indicating Ashdown's location, but their accuracy was challenged by Delić, for the location of a village was different from that shown in other maps of the area.<ref name="pages44650-44764" />

Retirement

File:Paddy Ashdown.jpg

Ashdown in 2016

In retirement, Ashdown became a regular voice for the Liberal Democrats. He publicly supported military strikes in Syria in 2013 and said he was ashamed after Parliament voted against them.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> At the 2015 general election he appeared on the BBC soon after the announcement of the exit poll which predicted that the Liberal Democrats would be reduced from 57 MPs to 10. Ashdown said he would eat his hat if the exit poll was correct. The result was that the Liberal Democrats returned eight MPs, but the technical difference from the exit poll was not enough to save him from several requests to carry out his vow. Some commentators suggested humorously that this was an example of Liberal Democrats breaking their promises in response to U-turns conducted in the coalition government.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The following day after the election, on the BBC's Question Time programme, Ashdown was presented with a chocolate hat that he later ate.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Offer of Cabinet post

In June 2007, the BBC reported that Ashdown had been offered and rejected the Cabinet post of Northern Ireland secretary by incoming Labour Party prime minister Gordon Brown. Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell had already ruled out the idea that members of his party would take seats in a Brown Cabinet, but, according to the reports, Brown still approached Ashdown with the offer.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Offer of Afghanistan post

Ashdown was later asked by US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and Prime Minister Gordon Brown to take charge of the Allied effort in Afghanistan,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> though an unnamed source is quoted in a January 2008 Reuters report indicating that Ashdown was also approached by UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon and met with the Afghan president Hamid Karzai secretly in Kuwait to discuss the post which he later accepted.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He later decided against taking the role after gleaning that Afghanistan preferred General Sir John McColl over him.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> On 7 March, Norwegian diplomat Kai Eide was appointed as the UN representative for Afghanistan, stating "I'm not Paddy Ashdown, but don't under-estimate me."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Other positions

Ashdown was a member of the Governing Council of Interpeace, an international peacebuilding organisation,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and also served as President of Chatham House.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He later chaired the Liberal Democrats' 2015 general election team.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2016, Ashdown founded More United alongside several other public figures in the aftermath of the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum.<ref name=businessinsider /> More United is a liberal and progressive cross-party political movement.<ref name=businessinsider>Template:Cite news</ref>

Personal life

File:Official portrait of Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon.jpg

Parliamentary portrait by Chris McAndrew, March 2018

Ashdown married Jane Courtenay in 1962. The couple had a son, Simon; a daughter, Katharine; and three grandchildren. In 1992, following the press becoming aware of a stolen document relating to a divorce case, he disclosed a five-month affair with his secretary, Patricia Howard, five years earlier from which he acquired the press nickname "Paddy Pantsdown".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> His career and marriage both survived the political and tabloid storm, with his wife forgiving him.<ref name="Roth-Guardian" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Ashdown supported Yeovil Town.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He was a member of the National Liberal Club.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Death and funeral

Ashdown was diagnosed with bladder cancer in October 2018.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="BBC death"/> He died on 22 December at Southmead Hospital in Bristol,<ref name=ODNB /> at the age of 77.<ref name="BBC death">Template:Cite news</ref>

On 10 January 2019, a funeral service was held at Church of St Mary the Virgin, Norton-sub-Hamdon,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and he was buried in the churchyard.<ref name=ODNB /> A service of thanksgiving was held for him at Westminster Abbey on 10 September.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Honours and awards

National honours

Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George

Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour

Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire

Naval General Service Medal with Borneo Clasp

General Service Medal with Northern Ireland Clasp

Date	Ribbon	Honour	Letters
rowspan="2" Template:Unknown	File:Naval General Service Medal 1915 BAR.svg	Naval General Service Medal with Borneo Clasp<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Failed verification	rowspan="2" Template:N/a
File:General Service Medal 1962 BAR.svg	General Service Medal with Northern Ireland Clasp<ref name=":0" />Template:Failed verification
19 June 2000	File:Order of the British Empire (Civil) Ribbon.svg	Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire	KBE
31 December 2005	File:UK Order St-Michael St-George ribbon.svg	Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>	GCMG
31 December 2014	File:Order of the Companions of Honour Ribbon.gif	Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>	CH

Foreign honours

Country	Year	Ribbon	Honour
Template:Flagicon	2017	File:Legion Honneur Officier ribbon.svg	Officer of the Legion of Honour<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Template:Flagicon	2004	File:US DoD Distinguished Public Service Award BAR.svg	Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Appointments

• Life peer as Baron Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon in the House of Lords (10 July 2001)<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>

In popular culture

In 2011, Ashdown narrated the BBC Timewatch documentary The Most Courageous Raid of WWII.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Donald Sumpter portrays Ashdown in the 2015 Channel 4 television film Coalition.<ref name=mcgurk>Template:Cite news</ref>

Published works

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See also

• Hong Kong Watch, former Patron

External links

• Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon profile at the site of Liberal Democrats
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• Column archive at The Guardian
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• Catalogue of the papers of Paddy Ashdown at London School of Economics Archives
• "After Iraq – Shall we ever intervene again?" Template:Webarchive, lecture given at Gresham College, 15 May 2007 Template:Link note
• Audio: Lord Paddy Ashdown in conversation on the BBC World Service discussion show The Forum
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• Obituary at BBC News Online
• A political life in pictures at The Guardian