How sex shame minister Profumo helped settle grouse row: War Secretary approved use of soldiers for Prince Philip’s Balmoral shoot
He was at the center of one of history’s biggest political scandals, caused by an illicit affair with a showgirl 27 years his junior.
But three years before John Profumo resigned in disgrace from Harold Macmillan’s government, the then Secretary of State for War was urged to confront the Queen.
Newly released War Office documents from 1960 reveal that soldiers deployed to protect the Queen at Balmoral were used as grouse by members of the Royal Family.
A constituent raised the issue with Bill Carr, Conservative member of Barons Court in London, who was concerned that soldiers at the Queen’s estate in Aberdeenshire were driving grouse for the Duke of Edinburgh and Lord Snowdon, the husband of Princess Margaret.
The outraged voter told the MP: ‘I think it’s a damned shame that fifty Cameron Highlanders – presumably regular soldiers – should be used to wave white flags and act as beaters so that grouse, happy and carefree in the moors, can are raised. straight into the air [Lord Snowdon] can go home with his ‘bag’.
Three years before John Profumo (pictured) resigned in disgrace from Harold Macmillan’s government, the then Secretary of State for War was urged to confront the Queen
Newly released War Office documents from 1960 reveal that soldiers deployed to protect the Queen at Balmoral were used as grouse by members of the Royal Family. Pictured: Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip at Balmoral in 1972
“Please, Mr. Carr, I request that you, as my representative, find out on whose authority and at whose expense those fifty soldiers were deployed for this particular ‘sports event’.”
The Times reported that the MP then wrote to Profumo, saying: ‘I should be very grateful for the fullest explanation I can put to this gentleman who, if I may say so in confidence, is a ‘nasty piece of crime ‘ seems to be. work’ and which I would very much like to reassure in some way in this matter.’
An aide, responding on behalf of Profumo, wrote back: “I so agree with your description of the gentleman you are referring to.
‘I believe it is wise to give him as brief an explanation as his questions require. The troops assigned to guard duties at Balmoral are also available to provide other personal services to the Queen, including working as knockers for shootings on the royal estates.”
The response stated that it would be sufficient if the voter were “informed that this is within the jurisdiction of the War Office and that this will not incur any additional costs to the public.”
Grouse hunting has a long history at Balmoral and has been a regular pastime for the Royal Family since the reign of Queen Victoria, with the sport transforming large parts of the Scottish countryside.
Grouse hunting has a long history in Balmoral (pictured) and has been a regular pastime for the Royal Family since the reign of Queen Victoria
But the 1960 incident was not the first time such concerns were raised. War Office documents show that in 1955 Lieutenant General Sir Colin Barber, the Governor of Edinburgh Castle, said: ‘I understand that the guard has been used in this capacity in the past to shoot parties outside the royal circle.
‘You will realize how undesirable this is, because it could give Labor MPs a tool to ask difficult and embarrassing questions in parliament.’
Profumo’s career ended when his sexual relationship with 19-year-old model Christine Keeler came to light in 1963.
The scandal, made much worse because Keeler also had an affair with a Soviet diplomat, helped topple MacMillan’s Conservative government and became the defining British political scandal of the 20th century.
Profumo died in March 2006, aged 91.
Who was Christine Keeler and what was the Profumo affair?
Born in Middlesex, Christine Keeler moved to London as a teenager and started working at Murray’s Cabaret Club in Soho.
There she met Dr Stephen Ward, a high-flying London osteopath and fixer who ‘procured women’ for leading members of the establishment, who introduced her to Conservative minister John Profumo when she was at a party hosted by Lord and Lady Astor in 1961. organized.
The pair made headlines after a year later, in December 1962, seven shots were fired at Ward’s home in a quiet Marylebone stables by a jilted friend of Keeler.
Ms. Keeler’s other lovers include A-Team actor George Peppard, legendary womanizer Warren Beatty and Prisoner of Zenda star Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
Ms Keeler, pictured, met Conservative minister Profumo – 27 years her senior – after leaving her home in Middlesex and working at Murray’s Cabaret Club in Soho.
Ms Keeler, pictured right, in a car with her friend Mandy Rice-Davies, who was also involved in the affair scandal
It turned out that the then 19-year-old Keeler had slept with the former Minister of War John Profumo, then 48, and at the same time with a handsome Russian spy Evgeny Ivanov.
But when the news broke, Profumo lied to the House of Commons about his affair. He was soon discovered and Keeler sold her story to the News of The World for £23,000.
He quit in disgrace in June 1963, amid accusations that Keeler had been asked by Ivanov to find out from the Secretary of War when the West Germans might receive American nuclear missiles to be stationed on their territory.
Profumo had been a rising star of the Tory Party, close to Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, a favorite visitor to Buckingham Palace, a war hero and the dashing husband of actress Valerie Hobson, one of the great beauties of her time.
Ms. Keeler, whose other lovers include A-Team actor George Peppard, legendary womanizer Warren Beatty and Prisoner of Zenda star Douglas Fairbanks Jr. his, said in an interview years later that the establishment was much more interested in portraying it as a sex scandal and chose to ignore whispered claims about a widespread spy network.
Christine died in December 2017 at the age of 75.