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William Douglas-Home 1941.
The honourable William Douglas-Home
was born in Edinburgh in 1912, the
third son of the 13th Earl of Home and
younger brother to Alec, who was prime
minister from 1963 to 1964. Educated
at Eton, he read history at New College,
Oxford, before embarking on an acting
career, which came to an abrupt end
when the head of RADA described his
aristocratic voice as that of ‘a constipated
Bishop’. He wrote his first play while at
Eton – a short story about a housemaster,
murdered by his pupils, which was only produced after the headmaster’s son was cast in the leading role. In the late 1930s, Douglas-Home toured with various stage companies, assisting with scriptwriting.
Conscripted into the army in July 1940, he served with The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment) before being commissioned from Sandhurst in March 1941. He was one of the group of cadets that survived the bombing of New College on the night of 29th January. One of his fellow cadets, the future General Sir David Fraser, described how Douglas-Home was, even at this stage, critical of the war, which he thought to be unnecessary. Posted to the 7th Battalion, The Buffs, stationed in the UK, he stood for parliament in three by-elections: Glasgow Cathcart in April 1942, he polled 21% of the vote; Windsor in June 1942, winning 42% of the vote, but in Clay Cross in March 1944, he lost his deposit. The 7th Battalion, The Buffs, eventually converted to armour as 141st Regiment RAC and landed in Europe soon after D-Day.
In September 1944, the Allies surrounded the port of Le Havre, with an intense bombing raid planned as the precursor to the ground attack. The German commander asked to evacuate the French civilians, but this was refused. Douglas-Home was a liaison officer and, when he learned of this, refused to take part in the attack, citing his objections as: ‘The Allies unconditional surrender policy forced Germans to fight to the end, and the refusal to evacuate the civilians was therefore morally indefensible’. Placed under ‘supervision’, a sort of open arrest, he wrote to the Maidenhead Advertiser stating his objections but, when the letter was published, he was court-
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