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Jock Colville
Sir John Rupert Colville, CB, CVO (28 January 1915 – 19 November 1987) was a British civil servant. He is best known for his diaries, which provide an intimate view of number 10 Downing Street during the wartime Premiership of Winston Churchill.
Colville came from a politically active and well-connected family, although, as he stated in the introduction to his published diaries, he was the younger son of a younger son and so did not inherit family wealth.
His father was the Hon. George Charles Colville, who was secretary of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and the younger son of Charles Colville, 1st Viscount Colville of Culross, a Conservative politician who served as Master of the Buckhounds and Tory Chief Whip.
His mother was Lady Cynthia, a courtier and social worker. She was the daughter of Robert Crewe-Milnes, 1st Marquess of Crewe, by his first wife, the former Sibyl Graham, daughter of the Graham Baronets of Netherby. Colville never knew his maternal grandmother, who died young; his maternal grandfather, a Liberal Cabinet minister, remarried Margaret (Peggy) Primrose, daughter of Lord Rosebery, Liberal Prime Minister in 1894–1895, and his wife Hannah, heiress to her father’s Rothschild fortune. Lionel Nathan de Rothschild was a close friend. Lady Cynthia, in addition to her duties as a Woman of the Bedchamber to Queen Mary, devoted her energies to alleviating the suffering of Shoreditch, one of the poorest areas of the East End of London.
Colville had two elder brothers, David Richard (11 May 1909 – 9 February 1987) and Major Philip Robert Colville (7 November 1910 – 11 April 1997). Colville's first cousin and schoolmate was Terence O'Neill, later Prime Minister of Northern Ireland from 1964 to 1969. Other relatives include O'Neill's successor James Chichester-Clark and Colville's aunt Mary Innes-Ker, Duchess of Roxburghe. Peter Carington, 6th Baron Carrington, a Conservative politician who served as Foreign Secretary in the Cabinet of Margaret Thatcher from 1979 to 1982, was his second cousin.
Colville served alongside Harry Legge-Bourke (his half–second cousin) as a Page of Honour between 1927 and 1931, thanks to his mother's connections as attendant to the queen. She also ensured he saw the other side of life, by taking him to the infant welfare centre she ran in Shoreditch in London. He was educated at West Downs School, Winchester; Harrow; and Trinity College, Cambridge.
In preparation for a career in the diplomatic service, he twice spent a few months in the Black Forest to improve his German. The first time in the village of Marxzell was just before university in 1933, and the second was just after in 1937. He thus saw the very beginning of Hitler's chancellorship, and its effects once it had bedded in: "There was increasing Strength matched by diminishing Joy" (This was an ironic reference to the Nazi morale-building programme of Kraft durch Freude, "Strength through Joy").
Colville was Assistant Private Secretary to three Prime Ministers:
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Jock Colville
Sir John Rupert Colville, CB, CVO (28 January 1915 – 19 November 1987) was a British civil servant. He is best known for his diaries, which provide an intimate view of number 10 Downing Street during the wartime Premiership of Winston Churchill.
Colville came from a politically active and well-connected family, although, as he stated in the introduction to his published diaries, he was the younger son of a younger son and so did not inherit family wealth.
His father was the Hon. George Charles Colville, who was secretary of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and the younger son of Charles Colville, 1st Viscount Colville of Culross, a Conservative politician who served as Master of the Buckhounds and Tory Chief Whip.
His mother was Lady Cynthia, a courtier and social worker. She was the daughter of Robert Crewe-Milnes, 1st Marquess of Crewe, by his first wife, the former Sibyl Graham, daughter of the Graham Baronets of Netherby. Colville never knew his maternal grandmother, who died young; his maternal grandfather, a Liberal Cabinet minister, remarried Margaret (Peggy) Primrose, daughter of Lord Rosebery, Liberal Prime Minister in 1894–1895, and his wife Hannah, heiress to her father’s Rothschild fortune. Lionel Nathan de Rothschild was a close friend. Lady Cynthia, in addition to her duties as a Woman of the Bedchamber to Queen Mary, devoted her energies to alleviating the suffering of Shoreditch, one of the poorest areas of the East End of London.
Colville had two elder brothers, David Richard (11 May 1909 – 9 February 1987) and Major Philip Robert Colville (7 November 1910 – 11 April 1997). Colville's first cousin and schoolmate was Terence O'Neill, later Prime Minister of Northern Ireland from 1964 to 1969. Other relatives include O'Neill's successor James Chichester-Clark and Colville's aunt Mary Innes-Ker, Duchess of Roxburghe. Peter Carington, 6th Baron Carrington, a Conservative politician who served as Foreign Secretary in the Cabinet of Margaret Thatcher from 1979 to 1982, was his second cousin.
Colville served alongside Harry Legge-Bourke (his half–second cousin) as a Page of Honour between 1927 and 1931, thanks to his mother's connections as attendant to the queen. She also ensured he saw the other side of life, by taking him to the infant welfare centre she ran in Shoreditch in London. He was educated at West Downs School, Winchester; Harrow; and Trinity College, Cambridge.
In preparation for a career in the diplomatic service, he twice spent a few months in the Black Forest to improve his German. The first time in the village of Marxzell was just before university in 1933, and the second was just after in 1937. He thus saw the very beginning of Hitler's chancellorship, and its effects once it had bedded in: "There was increasing Strength matched by diminishing Joy" (This was an ironic reference to the Nazi morale-building programme of Kraft durch Freude, "Strength through Joy").
Colville was Assistant Private Secretary to three Prime Ministers: