William Rees-Mogg

William Rees-Mogg, Baron Rees-Mogg (14 July 1928 – 29 December 2012) was a British newspaper journalist who was Editor of The Times from 1967 to 1981. In the late 1970s, he served as High Sheriff of Somerset, and in the 1980s was Chairman of the Arts Council of Great Britain and Vice-Chairman of the BBC's Board of Governors. He was the father of the politicians Sir Jacob and Annunziata Rees-Mogg.

The Right Honourable The Lord Rees-Mogg
Rees-Mogg in 1969
Chairman of the Arts Council of Great Britain
In office 1982–1989
Preceded by	Sir Kenneth Robinson
Succeeded by	Peter Palumbo
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal
In office 8 August 1988 – 29 December 2012 Life peerage
Personal details
Born	William Rees-Mogg (1928-07-14)14 July 1928 Bristol, England
Died	29 December 2012(2012-12-29) (aged 84) London, England
Resting place	Church of St James, Cameley
Political party	None (crossbencher)
Other political affiliations	Conservative
Spouse	Gillian Morris
Children	5 (including Sir Jacob and Annunziata)
Education	Clifton College Prep School Charterhouse School
Alma mater	Balliol College, Oxford
Profession	Newspaper journalism
Awards	Knight Bachelor (1981)

Early life

William Rees-Mogg was born in 1928 in Bristol, England. He was the son of Edmund Fletcher Rees-Mogg (1889–1962) of Cholwell House^[1] in the parish of Cameley in Somerset, an Anglican, and his Irish American Catholic wife, Beatrice Warren, a daughter of Daniel Warren of New York.^[2][3] William Rees-Mogg was raised in the Roman Catholic faith.

He was educated at Clifton College Preparatory School in Bristol and Charterhouse in Godalming, where he was Head of School.^[4][5]

Not yet eighteen, Rees-Mogg went up to Balliol College, Oxford, as a Brackenbury Scholar to read history in January 1946 as a place had fallen temporarily vacant. By the end of the Trinity (summer) term, he had been elected to the library committee (the junior committee) of the Oxford Union Society and was due to be an officer of the Oxford University Conservative Association under Margaret Roberts (the future Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher), President for Michaelmas (autumn) Term 1946.^[6]

However, having spent two terms at Oxford he did not return in October. He later wrote that he had been forced to give up his place to a disabled ex-serviceman. From 1946 to 1948, beginning with an exceptionally bitter winter, he did his National Service in the Royal Air Force education department rising to the rank of sergeant. His duties included teaching illiterate recruits to read and write, and his reference from his commanding officer stated that he was competent to perform simple tasks under supervision.^[6]

He returned to Oxford to complete his degree,^[7] and became President of Oxford University Conservative Association in Michaelmas Term 1950 and President of the Oxford Union in Trinity term, 1951.^[6][8] He graduated that term with a second-class degree.^[6]

Career

Rees-Mogg began his career in journalism in London at the Financial Times in 1952 becoming chief leader writer in 1955 and, in addition, assistant editor in 1957.^[9][10] During this period, he was Conservative candidate for the safe Labour seat of Chester-le-Street in a by-election on 27 September 1956, losing to the Labour candidate Norman Pentland by 21,287 votes,^[11] as he did in the subsequent general election by a similar margin.

He moved to The Sunday Times in 1960, later becoming its Deputy Editor from 1964^[10] where he wrote "A Captain's Innings",^[12] which many believe convinced Alec Douglas-Home to resign as Tory leader, making way for Edward Heath, in July 1965.^[11]

Rees-Mogg was editor of The Times from 1967 to 1981. In a 1967 editorial entitled "Who breaks a butterfly on a wheel?",^[a][12] he criticised the severity of the custodial sentence for Mick Jagger on a drugs offence.^[13] With colleagues, he attempted a buyout of Times Group Newspapers in 1981 to stop its sale by the Thomson Organisation to Rupert Murdoch, but was unsuccessful.^[14] Murdoch replaced him as editor with Harold Evans. Rees-Mogg wrote a comment column for The Independent from its foundation in the autumn of 1986 until near the end of 1992,^[15] when he rejoined The Times,^[16] where he remained a columnist until shortly before his death. In his Memoirs, published in 2011, he wrote of Murdoch: "Looking back, he has been an excellent proprietor for the Times, but also for Fleet Street."^[17]

Rees-Mogg was a member of the BBC's Board of Governors and chairman of the Arts Council, overseeing a major reform of the latter body which halved the number of arts organisations receiving regular funding and reduced the Council's direct activities. Having been High Sheriff of Somerset from 1978 to 1979,^[18] he was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 1981 Birthday Honours^[19] and knighted by Elizabeth II in an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace on 3 November 1981.^[20] In the 1988 Birthday Honours, Rees-Mogg was made a life peer^[21] on 8 August that year as Baron Rees-Mogg, of Hinton Blewitt in the County of Avon,^[22] and sat in the House of Lords as a cross-bencher, having twice attempted to become a Conservative MP in the 1950s.^[23] He was a member of the European Reform Forum. The University of Bath awarded him an Honorary Degree (Doctor of Laws) in 1977.^[24]

He co-authored, with James Dale Davidson, three books on the general topic of financial investment and the future of capitalism: Blood in the Streets, The Great Reckoning, and The Sovereign Individual. Published in 1997, The Sovereign Individual argues that in an internet age the nation state will become outmoded, and an era of the individual will develop. Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal, stated in 2014 that The Sovereign Individual was the most influential book he had read.^[25][26] The Sovereign Individual has had a strong influence on neoreactionary (NRx) politics.^[27]

Writing in The Times in 2001, Lord Rees-Mogg, who had a house in Somerset, described himself as "a country person who spends most of his time in London", and attempted to define the characteristics of a "country person". He also wrote that Tony Blair was as unpopular in rural England as Mrs Thatcher had been in Scotland. By now his liberal attitude to drugs policy had led to his being mocked as "Mogadon Man" by Private Eye.^[13] The magazine later referred to him as "Mystic Mogg" (a pun on "Mystic Meg", a tabloid astrologer) because of the perception that his economic and political predictions were ultimately found to be inaccurate.^[14][28]

Rees-Mogg served as the chairman of the London publishing firm Pickering & Chatto Publishers and of NewsMax Media and wrote a weekly column for The Mail on Sunday.^[29] He also collected 18th-century literature.^[30]

Personal life

Rees-Mogg and his wife Gillian Shakespeare Morris (b.1939) married in 1962. She is the daughter of Thomas Richard Morris who was a lorry driver and later a car salesman.^[31] He became a Conservative councillor and Mayor in the Borough of St Pancras, and later councillor for the Kings Cross ward of the London Borough of Camden. He was also a JP.

They had five children. They are:

• Emma Beatrice Rees-Mogg (born 1962),^[32] who married David William Hilton Craigie, son of Major Robin Brooks, in 1990. The couple have four children: Maud, Wilfred, Myfanwy and Samuel. She is a novelist under the name Emma Craigie^[33]
• Charlotte Louise Rees-Mogg (born 1964)^[32]
• Thomas Fletcher Rees-Mogg (born 1966), who married Modwenna Northcote in 1996. The couple have four children: former president of the Oxford University Conservative Association William,^[34] Beatrice, David and Constance^[32]
• Sir Jacob William Rees-Mogg (born 24 May 1969), who was elected Conservative MP for the new constituency of North East Somerset in 2010 after having stood unsuccessfully as a candidate for the Conservative Party in the 1997 and 2001 general elections (in Central Fife and The Wrekin respectively).^[12] He married Helena de Chair in 2007. The couple have six children: Peter, Mary, Thomas, Anselm, Alfred and Sixtus.^[35] In July 2019, he was appointed Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council in the Johnson ministry.
• Annunziata Mary Rees-Mogg (born 25 March 1979), who stood unsuccessfully as a candidate for the Conservative Party in the 2005 general election in Aberavon, and in Somerton and Frome at the 2010 election. She was elected as a Member of the European Parliament for the Brexit Party in 2019.

Rees-Mogg, a Roman Catholic, argued that the image of an ultra-conservative papacy is false and that the Vatican must overhaul its PR machine (as of 2009).^[36]

In 1964, Rees-Mogg purchased Ston Easton Park near Bath, Somerset, the former home of the Hippisley family. The house had been threatened with demolition and Rees-Mogg partially restored it.^[37] He sold the house to the Smedley family in 1978.

Death

Afflicted by oesophageal cancer, he became seriously ill just before Christmas of 2012, and died in London on 29 December at the age of 84.^[38] Rees-Mogg's funeral was held at Westminster Cathedral on 9 January 2013,^[39] with his body being buried in the graveyard of the Church of St James at Cameley in the county of Somerset.

Coat of arms of William Rees-Mogg

Coronet A Coronet of a Baron Crest 1st, between two Spearheads erect Sable a Cock proper (Mogg); 2nd, a Swan Argent wings elevated Or holding in the beak a Water-Lily slipped proper Escutcheon Quarterly, 1st and 4th, Argent on a Fess Pean between three Ermine Spots each surmounted by a Crescent Gules a Cock Or (Mogg); 2nd and 3rd, Gules a Chevron engrailed Erminois between three Swans Argent wings elevated Or (Rees) Motto Cura Pii Diis Sunt (The pious are in the care of the Gods)^[citation needed]

Books

• The reigning error: The crisis of world inflation (1975)^{[ISBN missing]}
• An Humbler Heaven (1977) ISBN 9780241896921
• Blood in the Streets: Investment Profits in a World Gone Mad (1986, with James Dale Davidson) ISBN 9780671627355^[40]
• Picnics on Vesuvius: Steps towards the millennium (1992) ISBN 0283061472
• The Great Reckoning: How the World Will Change Before the Year 2000 (1992, with James Dale Davidson) ISBN 9780330327923^[41][42][43]
• The Sovereign Individual: Mastering the Transition to the Information Age (1997, with James Dale Davidson) ISBN 9780684832722

See also

• Self-ownership
• R v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, ex p Rees-Mogg

Sources

• Rees-Mogg, William (2011). Memoirs. HarperPress. ISBN 978-0-002-57183-8.

Notes

1. a reference to the line Who breaks a butterfly on a wheel? by Alexander Pope

References

1. Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, 15th Edition, ed. Pirie-Gordon, H., London, 1937, pp.1610–1611, pedigree of "Rees-Mogg of Cholwell", p.1611
2. Burke, 1937, p.1611
3. Baes, Stephen (29 December 2012). "Lord Rees-Mogg obituary". The Guardian. London. from the original on 2 January 2013. Retrieved 3 September 2017.
4. "Lord Rees-Mogg dies aged 84". This is Bath. Bath. 29 December 2012. from the original on 31 December 2012. Retrieved 29 December 2012.
5. "Obituary: William Rees Mogg". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. from the original on 2 November 2021. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
6. Rees-Mogg 2011, pp75-81.
7. presumably in April 1949 to complete the nine terms of residence normally required for a BA, although his memoirs do not give the exact date
8. Larman, Alexander (29 July 2012). "Memoirs by William Rees-Mogg – review". The Observer. London. from the original on 15 September 2012. Retrieved 1 January 2013.
9. Byrne, Ciar (12 June 2006). . The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 24 October 2012. Retrieved 1 January 2013.
10. Griffiths, Edward, ed. (1992). The Encyclopedia of the British Press, 1422–1992. London: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 482. ISBN 9780312086336.
11. Dennen, Tom (Fall 2010). ""Wealth Transfer" is Cyclic "Reckoning"". The Journal of History. 10 (2). London: News Source, Inc. from the original on 16 January 2013. Retrieved 1 January 2013.
12. Budden, Rob (29 December 2012). "Journalist Lord Rees-Mogg dies". Financial Times. London. from the original on 2 February 2013. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
13. Bates, Stephen (29 December 2012). "Lord Rees-Mogg obituary". The Guardian. London. from the original on 2 January 2013.
14. . The Daily Telegraph. London. 30 December 2012. Archived from the original on 2 January 2013. Retrieved 1 January 2013.
15. Rees-Mogg, William (21 December 1992). "Is this the end of life as I know it?". The Independent. London. from the original on 16 April 2015. Retrieved 1 January 2013.
16. "The Rt Hon Lord Rees-Mogg Authorised Biography". People of Today. London: Debrett's. 2012. Archived from the original on 1 January 2013. Retrieved 1 January 2013.
17. Preston, Peter (13 July 2011). "Memoirs by William Rees-Mogg – review". The Guardian. London. from the original on 11 December 2011. Retrieved 1 January 2013.
18. "No. 47497". The London Gazette. 23 March 1978. p. 3664.
19. "No. 48639". The London Gazette (Supplement). 12 June 1981. p. 2.
20. "No. 48819". The London Gazette. 11 December 1981. p. 15769.
21. "No. 51365". The London Gazette (Supplement). 10 June 1988. p. 1.
22. "No. 51439". The London Gazette. 12 August 1988. p. 9161.
23. Conal Urquhart (29 December 2012). "Former Times editor Lord Rees-Mogg dies". TheGuardian.com. Retrieved 30 August 2022.
24. "University of Bath: Honorary Graduates 1966 to 1988". Bath, Somerset: University of Bath. 2012. from the original on 16 January 2013. Retrieved 29 December 2012.
25. Beckett, Andy (9 November 2018). "How to explain Jacob Rees-Mogg? Start with his father's books". The Guardian. from the original on 9 November 2018. Retrieved 9 November 2018.
26. Conn O Midheach (12 May 1997). "Future shock". Irish Times. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
27. Smith, Harrison; Burrows, Roger (9 April 2021). "Software, Sovereignty and the Post-Neoliberal Politics of Exit". Theory, Culture & Society. 38 (6): 143–166. doi:10.1177/0263276421999439. hdl:1983/9261276b-8184-482c-b184-915655df6c19. ISSN 0263-2764. S2CID 234839947.
28. Wilby, Peter (8 January 2007). "Prints of darkness". The Guardian. London. from the original on 9 August 2008. Retrieved 1 January 2013.
29. Leapman, Michael (31 December 2012). "Lord Rees-Mogg: 'Times' editor who later brought high moral purpose to his public service". The Independent. from the original on 18 August 2021. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
30. William Rees-Mogg "Contemporary Collectors: 18th Century Literature." The Book Collector 10 4 (autumn) 423–434.
31. Jack, Ian (22 January 2022). "Rees-Mogg's roots tell a true Conservative tale – just not the one he wants us to hear". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 January 2022.
32. Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003.
33. "What Was Never Said by Emma Craigie". The Guardian. 17 September 2015. from the original on 16 March 2017. Retrieved 15 March 2017.
34. Mintz, Luke (26 July 2017). "Meet William Rees-Mogg, the nephew of Jacob, trying to sell Conservatism to a new generation". The Daily Telegraph. London. from the original on 22 January 2022. Retrieved 17 April 2020. As president of Oxford University's Conservative society, the 20-year-old history student at Magdalen College is hoping to transform the face of student Conservatism into a virtuous, charity-loving and politically correct force.
35. "BBC News". 5 July 2017. from the original on 5 July 2017. Retrieved 5 July 2017.
36. Rees-Mogg, William (23 March 2009). "The Pope's message is not the problem". The Times. London. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
37. Reid, Robert Douglas (1979). Some buildings of Mendip. The Mendip Society. ISBN 0-905459-16-4.
38. Booth, Jenny (29 December 2012). . The Times. London. Archived from the original on 31 December 2012. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
39. O'Carroll, Lisa (10 January 2013). "Tributes paid to Lord Rees-Mogg at funeral". The Guardian. from the original on 25 July 2019. Retrieved 25 July 2019.
40. ""BLOOD IN THE STREETS: Investment Profits in a World Gone Mad" (Review)". Kirkus Reviews. 1 June 1987. from the original on 17 February 2019. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
41. Lucas, Tom (1 May 1992). "UK: Book Review – The great reckoning – A global warning on wealth". Management Today. from the original on 3 June 2016. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
42. ""The Great Reckoning" (Review)". Kirkus Reviews. 1 August 1991. from the original on 27 October 2020. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
43. Hutton, Will (9 April 1992). "Beware the Ides of Mogg". London Review of Books. from the original on 13 August 2018. Retrieved 17 April 2020.

External links

• Profile at the Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard 1803–2005
• Voting record at PublicWhip.org
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou.com
• at Bloomberg Businessweek
• Profile at LevelBusiness

Media offices
Preceded by ?	Deputy Editor of The Sunday Times 1964–1967	Succeeded by Frank Giles
Preceded by William Haley	Editor of The Times 1967–1981	Succeeded by Harold Evans
Cultural offices
Preceded by Kenneth Robinson	Chair of the Arts Council of Great Britain 1982–1989	Succeeded by Peter Palumbo