Otho Prior-Palmer

Prior-Palmer was born in Dublin, Ireland, where his father, Spunner Prior-Palmer, was a landowner in County Sligo. He was sent to Wellington College for his schooling, and joined the British Army immediately on leaving school. In 1916 he was commissioned into the 9th Lancers. He trained at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. Later his younger brother George Erroll Prior-Palmer followed him through Wellington and Sandhurst into the same regiment.

During the inter-war period, Prior-Palmer took an interest in equestrianism while continuing in service with the Lancers. He owned a stud which bred horses for the Warwickshire Hounds,"Tattersalls' Sale", The Times, 20 January 1925. although he sometimes had to sell up when his leave was cancelled and he was posted abroad."Tattersalls' Sale", The Times, 9 February 1926. He also enjoyed sailing in the late 1920s,"Thames Boat Sailing", The Times, 15 June 1926. and was a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron. In April 1929 he was seconded for service as an adjutant in a Territorial Army unit.{{London Gazette|issue=33497|page=3402|date=21 May 1929}}

In July 1926 Prior-Palmer married Hon. Barbara Frankland."Marriages", The Times, 7 July 1926. His interest in horses was also manifest in horse racing: he was at first a jockey. In the Sandown Park Grand Military Gold Cup of 1932, he rode "Master of Orange" and led in the early stages, before coming in second at the finish."Racing", The Times, 12 March 1932. Later he was an active trainer of race horses.

In March 1936, Prior-Palmer was promoted major."The Army", The Times, 4 March 1936. However, he sued for and was granted a divorce in 1936 on the grounds of his wife's adultery with Edward Agar, 5th Earl of Normanton,"Probate, Divorce, And Admiralty Division", The Times, 22 December 1936. whom she subsequently married. On 11 May 1940 Prior-Palmer took as his second wife, Sheila Weller-Poley."Marriages", The Times, 14 May 1940. His second wife was to be active in politics later as a Conservative and as Chairman of West Sussex County Council Education Committee."Plea For Change in School Holidays", The Times, 24 June 1960.

During the Second World War, Prior-Palmer was placed in command of the 2nd Northamptonshire Yeomanry in 1940. In March 1942, he was transferred to command the 30th Armoured Brigade, and in August he moved to the 29th Armoured Brigade; both of these units were stationed in Britain. In 1943 Prior-Palmer was put in command of the 7th Armoured Brigade in Italy; this involved heavy fighting. In October 1944 his brigade made a particularly effective contribution to fighting around the Savio River."Swift Advance By Eighth Army", The Times, 23 October 1944. In 1945 he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order."Army Awards", The Times, 18 September 1945.

At the 1945 general election, Prior-Palmer was selected as the Conservative Party candidate for Worthing, a new constituency which had been created in boundary changes just before the election. He was placed on retired pay by the army in 1946 with the honorary rank of brigadier.

In parliament, Prior-Palmer began his career by voting (along with many backbench Conservative MPs) against the large loan from the United States that the Labour government had negotiated after the end of Lend-Lease. However, these were the only dissenting votes he ever cast against the Conservative whip.Philip Norton, "Dissension in the House of Commons 1945–74", Macmillan, 1975. In 1946 he argued for retaining conventional defence in addition to nuclear arms, because an answer would be found to the atomic bomb."Mr. Attlee on Defence Policy", The Times, 5 March 1946.

With an interest in army training and the cadet services, in May 1947 Prior-Palmer moved a new clause to the National Service Bill which would give an incentive to those who were called up for National Service after achieving a level of efficiency in the cadets."Competing Claims on Man-Power", The Times, 10 May 1947. In March 1948 he went on a Parliamentary delegation to East Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika and Zanzibar)."M.P.'s visit to East Africa", The Times, 17 March 1948. Later that year he warned of the danger of invasion of the United Kingdom by air, and urged the creation of a force to tackle it."House of Commons", The Times, 24 November 1948.

His constituency was safely Conservative and Prior-Palmer had a majority of over 21,000 in the 1951 general election. In the first month of the new Parliament, with a Conservative government once again, he was required to apologise after being overheard saying that the Labour frontbencher and former Minister Jim Griffiths "had never done a damned day's work in his life"."Government's Plans For Steel Industry", The Times, 13 November 1951. Griffiths had worked as a miner from the age of 13. In May 1953 he launched a debate on the need for voluntary defence services."Parliament", The Times, 16 May 1953. In September 1954 he was named on a delegation to visit the Soviet Union."British Visitors To Moscow", The Times, 16 September 1954.

Prior-Palmer supported abolition of capital punishment in an unwhipped House of Commons vote in February 1956, one of only 48 Conservative MPs to do so."Vote Against Hanging", The Times, 18 February 1956. He backed the Eden government on Suez, arguing that it took British and French intervention to get a United Nations force to come in."House of Commons", The Times, 7 November 1956. Having served as chair of the Conservative Backbenchers' Army sub-committee for most of the 1950s, he was made vice-chairman of the Defence Committee from 1958.

Knighted in 1959, Prior-Palmer was regarded as an 'elder statesman'{{Citation needed|date=March 2007}} but could still be angered by pacifist sentiment. In February 1960 he claimed that the Labour Party had "sent one of their chief leaders to Swaythling to stop men making Spitfires". Despite uproar among Labour MPs present, he refused to withdraw."House of Commons", The Times, 1 March 1960. In February 1961, Prior-Palmer signed, but later withdrew his name from, a motion critical of the constitutional development of Northern Rhodesia."More Conservatives Reassured", The Times, 25 February 1961.

On 7 November 1963, Prior-Palmer announced that owing to "personal reasons and reasons of ill-health", he would not be a candidate at the next general election."Worthing M.P. Not To Seek Reelection", The Times, 8 November 1963. He had in the meantime become involved in business in the field of commercial radio, as an investor."Pressure Grows For Private Local Radio", The Times, 1 June 1964. In 1964 he divorced his second wife and married his third, Elizabeth Henderson. They had two sons in the mid-1960s.

{{reflist}}

• M. Stenton and S. Lees, "Who's Who of British MPs" Vol. IV (Harvester Press, 1981)
• "Who Was Who", A & C Black
• [http://www.thepeerage.com/p5747.htm#i57464 Thepeerage.com]

• {{Hansard-contribs | brigadier-sir-otho-prior-palmer | Otho Prior-Palmer }}
• [https://generals.dk/general/Prior-Palmer/Otho_Leslie/Great_Britain.html Generals of World War II]

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Category:Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies

Category:Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst

Category:UK MPs 1945–1950

Category:UK MPs 1950–1951

Category:UK MPs 1951–1955

Category:UK MPs 1955–1959

Category:UK MPs 1959–1964

Category:9th Queen's Royal Lancers officers

Category:People educated at Wellington College, Berkshire

Category:Knights Bachelor

Category:Companions of the Distinguished Service Order

Category:1897 births

Category:1986 deaths

Category:Northamptonshire Yeomanry officers

Category:British Army brigadiers of World War II

Category:British Army personnel of World War I

Category:Military personnel from Dublin (city)

Otho