Toby Low, 1st Baron Aldington

Toby Austin Richard William Low, 1st Baron Aldington KCMG CBE DSO TD PC DL (25 May 1914 – 7 December 2000), known as Austin Richard William Low until he added 'Toby' as a forename by deed poll on 10 July 1957,^[1] was a British Conservative Party politician and businessman.

He was however best known for his alleged role in Operation Keelhaul, the forced repatriation of Russian, Ukrainian and other prisoners of war to the Soviet Union where many were executed. After he was accused of war crimes, he successfully sued his accusers for libel.^[2]

Life

He was the son of Colonel Stuart Low, who died in action in 1942, and Lucy Atkin, daughter of the Lord Atkin. He was educated at Winchester College^[2] (where he later became Warden), and at New College, Oxford where he studied law. He qualified as a barrister in 1939.^[2] He had joined the Rangers (King's Royal Rifle Corps), a famous London Territorial Infantry Regiment, in 1934 and served in World War II in Greece, Crete, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Italy and Austria, becoming the youngest Brigadier in the British Army in 1944. He was appointed to the Distinguished Service Order in 1941, made a Commander of the Legion of Merit (US) and awarded the Croix de Guerre.^[2]

Low stood for Parliament as a Conservative in the 1945 general election, and won the seat of Blackpool North.^[2] He served as Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Supply 1951–54 and Minister of State at the Board of Trade from 1954, becoming a Privy Counsellor.^[2]

In 1957, he was knighted and became chair of the Select Committee on nationalised industry. In 1959, he became deputy Conservative Party chairman. In 1962 he was created Baron Aldington, of Bispham in the County Borough of Blackpool, and increased his business interests, serving as the chairman of several companies. He had been a director of the family banking company, Grindlays Bank, in 1946, following his father and grandfather. In 1964, Lord Aldington became Chairman of the bank as well as of GEC.^[2] In 1971, he joined the BBC general advisory council, and became chairman of Sun-Alliance and the Port of London Authority.^[2] In 1972, he became co-chairman, with Jack Jones, of the joint special committee on the ports industry. He became chairman of Westland in 1977.

Lord Aldington was considered a One Nation Conservative and supported British involvement in the European Union. He continued political activities in the House of Lords, including as chairman of the Lords' select committee on overseas trade. He was also a Deputy Lieutenant of Kent.

In 1999, when hereditary peers were excluded from the House of Lords by the House of Lords Act 1999, as a hereditary peer of first creation he was granted a life peerage as Baron Low, of Bispham in the County of Lancashire, so that he could remain.

Family

Aldington married (Felicité Ann) Araminta MacMichael (d.2012) (a daughter of Sir Harold MacMichael) on 10 April 1947. They had two daughters, Priscilla Jane Stephanie, Lady Roberts, Lucy Ann Anthea, and a son, Charles Low, 2nd Baron Aldington.^[2]

Lady Aldington was Patron of the Jacob Sheep Society.^[3]

Libel case

In 1989 Lord Aldington initiated and won a record £1.5 million (plus £500,000 costs) in a libel case against Nikolai Tolstoy and Nigel Watts, who had accused him of war crimes in Austria during his involvement in the Betrayal of the Cossacks at Lienz, part of Operation Keelhaul at the end of the Second World War.^[2] Tolstoy had written several books (Victims of Yalta in 1977, Stalin's Secret War in 1981, The Minister and the Massacres in 1986) about the alleged complicity of British politicians and officers with Joseph Stalin's forces in the murder of White Russian exiles from Soviet Rule, Cossacks, Croatian para-military and civilian fugitives from Tito, as well as 11,000 Slovenian anticommunist fighters.^[4] Nigel Watts, who was in a business dispute with one of Lord Aldington's former companies, used this information to further his own cause, printing 10,000 leaflets about Aldington's role in the matter and circulating them to politicians and other figures.^[5] Tolstoy avoided paying the damages by declaring himself bankrupt,^[5] although after Aldington's death he paid £57,000 in costs to Aldington's estate.^[6] The damages awarded were criticised by the European Court of Human Rights in July 1995 as excessive and "not necessary in a democratic society", although this did not overturn the ruling itself or affect the amount to be paid out.^[7] Subsequently, allegations were made that Aldington had been materially assisted by friends at the Ministry of Defence, who had suppressed crucial documentation, but Tolstoy and Watts were not granted leave to appeal on the basis of those findings.^[8] Nigel Watts was jailed for 18 months in April 1995, after repeating the libel that Aldington was a war criminal in a pamphlet.^[5]

In 1996 the Court of Appeal upheld an order Aldington had obtained that made lawyers acting for Tolstoy pro bono parties to the case, and thereby jointly liable with Tolstoy for any costs or damages awarded to Aldington. This order was combined with a requirement that Tolstoy underwrite the cost of Aldington's defence to obtain leave to appeal.^[9]

References

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Toby Low
• Life peerage
• The Guardian obituary
• Daily Telegraph obituary