Though never in the front rank of politics, Richard Sharples was well liked and respected within the Conservative party and was not without influence. When he was shot dead with his aide-de-camp in the grounds of Government House, Bermuda, there was genuine sadness among his former colleagues in the House of Commons. Always courteous and considerate, he was for many the epitome of what a Conservative MP should be, which no doubt was why he was appointed by Edward Heath as Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party Organisation responsible for candidates in 1967. He held the post until 1970 when he was appointed Minister of State in the Home Office. Appointed Governor of Bermuda in October 1972, he was assassinated on the night of 10 March 1973.
Richard Christopher Sharples was born on 6 August 1916. He was educated at Eton and Sandhurst and was commissioned in the Welsh Guards in 1936. He had a good war, winning the MC with his regiment at Boulogne in 1940. Subsequently he became Brigade Major of the 17th Infantry Brigade in Italy in 1943 and was mentioned in despatches. He was wounded in the following year and won the American Silver Star. Subsequently he served on the staff of Lord Mountbatten. His last military appointment as Military Assistant to Montgomery 1951-3, with the local rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He was awarded the OBE.
He married Pamela Newall in 1946 and they had two sons and two daughters. After his death, she was made a member of the House of Lords.
Sharples left the army in 1953 and after a year working in the Economic Section of the Conservative Research Department, he won Sutton and Cheam in the November 1954 by-election. He retained the seat at the 1955 election and held it until he stood down from the Commons on his appointment to Bermuda. He served as Anthony Nutting’s PPS at the Foreign Office 1955-56 and subsequently served as R.A. Butler’s PPS at the Home Office 1957-9. He was well-liked in the House and speedily built a reputation as an influential backbencher. After the 1959 General Election he was appointed an assistant Government Whip, but stood down in 1960. In February 1962 he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Pensions and after Macmillan’s ‘Night of the Long Knives’ was made Geoffrey Rippon’s junior at the Ministry of Public Works.
In opposition after the Conservative defeat in October 1964, he became a spokesman on Home Office affairs and in 1966 was elected Vice Chairman of the Conservative backbench Home Affairs Committee.
His appointment to take charge of the candidate’s list followed. He had a hard act to follow, but was universally held to have carried out the job with a good deal of tact and exemplary judgement. Although there were suspicions that it was being remodelled to create a party in its leader’s image, these were unfounded. However, as a result of his work there were more women on the list and another underrepresented minority, the Jews, also strengthened their position. He also played a full part in the affairs of the party, attending the regular chairman’s meetings on Wednesday and taking part in the Policies and Priorities Committee. During the election itself he sat on the Questions of Policy Committee. His reward was appointment to the Home Office as Minister of State.
He has been described by one observer as competent, but not inspiring, in that role, a good staff officer but not a general.1 However, with a rather laid back Secretary of State, he did most of the work in taking the Heath Government’s legislation on immigration through the House; and in his memoirs Maudling called his departure from office “a great loss”.
In September 1970, following riots in Northern Ireland, he spent four days in the province and it was rumoured that he would be appointed Britain’s first Minister for Ulster. Certainly he appears to have taken a keen interest in the McCrory report on Ulster’s local government system. However, when the Heath Government was forced to take direct control of the province in March 1972, it was his fellow minister of state, Lord Windlesham who went to the new Northern Ireland Office to serve under Willie Whitelaw.
Instead in the autumn of 1972 Sharples was offered and accepted the Governorship of Bermuda, standing down from Parliament to do so. Less than five months later he was dead. His killers were hanged in 1977.
Sharples was knighted in 1972. In addition to his political activities he farmed and he was also an accomplished yachtsman. He was a liveryman of the Merchant Taylors Company and a freeman of the City of London
1 Bossom Notes, cited in L.Baston: Reggie p.392. Sir Clive Bossom was Maudling’s PPS.