Sir John William Frederic Nott KCB, PC 1932-2024

Sir John William Frederic Nott, KCB, PC, who died 6 November, 2024, aged 92, was a National Liberal and Conservative politician who served as Secretary of State for Defence from 1981 to 1983, during the Falklands War.

He was born 1 February, 1932, to Richard Nott and his wife the former Phyllis Francis, and was educated at Bradfield College and in 1952 was commissioned as a regular officer in the 2nd Gurkha Rifles. He served in the Malayan Emergency after a period of service with the Royal Scots. In 1956 he left the army to study law and economics at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was President of the Cambridge Union Society. He was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1959.

In 1966 Nott was elected as a National Liberal and Conservative MP for the Cornwall constituency of St Ives, the last person elected under the National Liberal label. The party was formally absorbed into the Conservatives in 1968, after which Nott sat as a Conservative MP. He was the last surviving former National Liberal MP. Nott served in the government of Edward Heath as Minister of State at the Treasury. After a brief spell working as a City of London consultant and focusing on managing his Cornish estate, where he grew flowers commercially, he joined the Shadow Cabinet in 1976. He was made Secretary of State for Trade after Margaret Thatcher won the 1979 general election and became a Privy Councillor. In the January 1981 reshuffle Nott became Secretary of State for Defence.  Nott offered his resignation to Thatcher following the Argentinian invasion of the Falklands in 1982. Unlike the Foreign Secretary, Lord Carrington, however, his resignation was not accepted. Nott remained as Defence Secretary throughout the four-month conflict. He was eventually replaced in January 1983 by Michael Heseltine after he decided not to seek re-election at the 1983 general election. On retirement he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath.

From 1985 to 1989 Nott was chairman and chief executive of Lazard Brothers. He also served as chairman of Hillsdown Holdings, a multinational food company, and of the Canadian firm Maple Leaf Foods, and was deputy chairman of Royal Insurance. In addition, he was an adviser to APAX Partners and Freshfields.

Nott married in 1959, Miloska Sekol (born 1935), whom he met at the University of Cambridge. They had two sons (including the film composer Julian Nott) and a daughter, (Alexandra)Sasha Nott, who married in 1996, the life peer, Hugo Swire, Baron Swire, KCMG, PC (born 30 Nov, 1959), who was Tory MP for East Devon, 2001-2019.

Nott spent much of his retirement restoring his 200-acre farm in Cornwall. 

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