The fascinating life of Sir Henry Keswick

Sir Henry Keswick died on Tuesday, aged 86. Under his proprietorship, from 1975 to 1981, The Spectator recovered, and began the almost continuous growth in reputation and circulation it has enjoyed ever since. The key to his ownership was that he appointed the ideal editor, Alexander Chancellor, a friend from Eton and Cambridge, who was, Henry claimed, the only journalist he knew. Having done this, he sensibly did little more, other than cover the overdraft, which was bigger than the £75,000 price. He was the first-ever owner of the paper who was not also its editor. He gave it the freedom to flourish.

The purchase of The Spectator was part of Henry’s programme for entering British politics. He had been in Hong Kong, working for the family trading company of Jardine Matheson, since 1961. In 1970, he became the taipan and therefore rich. In 1975, aged 36, he decided to return, almost like Clive of India, seeking a country house, a wife (he always had the same woman in mind) and a seat in parliament. The house was Oare, a lovely Georgian house near Pewsey. He saw buying The Spectator as the means to the third of those ambitions. But it went wrong, he told me, when he was shortlisted for a Conservative seat in Wiltshire. At the interview, the chairman asked Henry whether, if selected, he would buy a house in the constituency. ‘Madam,’ he replied, ‘my house borders the constituency, and indeed my arboretum is in the constituency.’ The chairman became nettled: ‘Mr Keswick, I must press you. If we choose you, will you buy a house in the constituency?’ ‘Madam, if you insist, I shall buy a house in every village in the constituency.’ He never reached the House of Commons.