John Nott
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The Right Honourable Sir John William Frederic Nott (born February 1, 1932; Bideford, Devon) was a British Conservative Party politician prominent in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He featured heavily in the public eye as Secretary of State for Defence during the Argentine invasion of the Falklands and the subsequent Falklands War.
Commissioned in the 2nd Gurkha Rifles in Malaysia (1952-6) he left to study law and economics at Trinity College, Cambridge where he was President of the Cambridge Union Society. Nott was Member of Parliament for St Ives from 1966 to 1983 and joined the Cabinet when Margaret Thatcher won the 1979 General Election. He served first as the President of the Board of Trade but was moved to Defence in the reshuffle of January 1981. Nott offered his resignation to Thatcher following the invasion of the Falklands in March 1982. Unlike that of Lord Carrington, the then Foreign Secretary, however, the resignation was not accepted. Nott remained Secretary of State for Defence throughout the four month conflict. He was eventually replaced by Michael Heseltine in January 1983 and did not seek re-election.
In 1985 he became Chairman and Chief Executive of the banking firm Lazard Brothers.
The title of Nott's autobiography Here Today, Gone Tomorrow is a reference to a famous line given by Sir Robin Day in an October 1982 interview with Nott. Day was questioning whether the public should believe Nott, a "here today, gone tomorrow politician" (Nott had recently announced that he would not stand at the next election), on defence cuts. Nott stood up, called the interview "ridiculous" and promptly walked off set.
| Preceded by: John Smith | President of the Board of Trade 1979-1981 | Succeeded by: John Biffen |
| Preceded by: Francis Pym | Secretary of State for Defence 1981-1983 | Succeeded by: Michael Heseltine ReferencesHere Today, Gone Tomorrow, Nott's autobiography, Politico's Publishing, ISBN 1842750305 |