Born in Sunningdale in 1920, he was the son of Annie Gertrude (née Creak) and Bernard Bruce Weatherill.[2] He married Lyn Eatwell in 1949 and they had three children. Weatherill was known as "Jack", while his twin sister (baptismal name Margery) was called "Jill".[2]
Tailor
Company logo of Bernard Weatherill Ltd
After attending Malvern College, he was apprenticed at age 17 as a tailor to the family firm Bernard Weatherill Ltd, Sporting Tailors, later of 5 Savile Row. He became Director (1948), Managing Director (1958), and Chairman (1967) of the business. After it merged with Kilgour French & Stanbury Ltd., Tailors in 1969, he became Chairman of the combined firm. He resumed his role with the company after his retirement from the House of Commons in 1992, as president until the firm was acquired by others in 2003. Some of the clothes he designed are in the Victoria and Albert Museum[3] and other museum collections.[4]
Following his mother's advice, he always carried his tailoring thimble in his pocket as a reminder of his trade origins and the need for humility, no matter how high one rises. He said that he desired his epitaph to be "He always kept his word."[5]
While on active service, Weatherill spent time in Bengal, where he embraced the local culture, including learning Urdu and taking up meditation. In response to having witnessed the Bengal famine of 1943, he became a vegetarian.[8]
Weatherill was discharged from the Army in 1946, having served for seven years.
From October 1971 to April 1973, Weatherill was Vice-Chamberlain of Her Majesty's Household, an office usually held by a Government whip, as Weatherill then was. He wrote a letter (hand-carried by messenger, or sent by telegram) to the Queen at the end of each day the House of Commons met, describing the debates, reactions, and political gossip. His letters[9] are believed to have been more entertaining than the debates themselves. Weatherill is the most recent Speaker to have served in Government prior to the Speakership; his successors have all been longtime backbench MPs.
In 1979, Weatherill played a critical role in the defeat of the Labour government in a vote of confidence. As the vote loomed, Labour's deputy Chief Whip, Walter Harrison, approached Weatherill to enforce the convention and Gentlemen's agreement (otherwise known as pairing) that if a sick MP from the Government could not vote, an MP from the Opposition would abstain to compensate. Labour MP Alfred Broughton was on his deathbed and could not vote, meaning the Government would probably lose by one vote. Weatherill said that the convention had never been intended for such a critical vote that meant the life or death of the Government and it would be impossible to find a Conservative MP who would agree to abstain. However, after a moment's reflection, he offered that he would abstain, because he felt it would be dishonourable to break his word to Harrison. Harrison was so impressed by Weatherill's offer (which would have effectively ended his political career) that he released Weatherill from his obligation, and the Government fell by one vote.[10]
He was the last Speaker to wear a wig while in the chair. He commented that the wig is a wonderful device that allows the Speaker to pretend not to hear some things. He enforced the rights of Parliament to be publicly told of government policies before they were announced to the press or elsewhere.[12] A portrait of him by Robin-Lee Hall hangs in Portcullis House.[13][14]
Life peer
He stood down in 1992, and was made a life peer on 15 July 1992 taking the title Baron Weatherill, of North East Croydon in the London Borough of Croydon.[15] As is customary for former Speakers, the government put before the House of Commons an address to the Queen, asking that Weatherill be appointed a peer as a mark of "royal favour". Given a rare opportunity to discuss constitutional arrangements relating to the monarch and the Upper House, left-wing members of Parliament forced a debate on the petition.[16]
He sat in the House of Lords as a crossbencher, the convention for former Speakers, irrespective of their previous party affiliation.
In 1993, he was elected alternate Convenor of the Crossbench Peers, and was a convenor from 1995 until 1999. In the House of Lords he made a major contribution to the House of Lords Act 1999 by stitching together the compromise that allowed a limited number of hereditary peers to remain as members.[17]
In 2006, he became Patron of the Better Off Out campaign, calling for Britain to leave the European Union.[18]
Later life
In 1989, he succeeded Lord Blake as High Bailiff and Searcher of the Sanctuary of Westminster Abbey. He resigned both of those offices at the end of 1998 in protest at the manner in which the Dean and Chapter dealt with terminating the employment of the organist.[19] He was succeeded by Roy Strong.
He was Vice-Chancellor of the British charitable Order of St John from 1983 to 2000, and was a knight of the Order from 1992.
Weatherill was an advocate of vegetarianism and appeared at the first Vegetarian Rally in Hyde Park, London in 1990, alongside Tony Benn. He once stated, "as a lifelong vegetarian I believe that since man cannot give life he has no moral right to take it away".[20]
A horse rampant Argent supporting a mace erect Or.
Escutcheon
Azure a cross floretty Or surmounting two lances in saltire Proper flying from each a forked pennon per fess Gules and Argent.
Supporters
Dexter a captain in the 19th King George V's Own Lancers (Indian Army) sinister a Knight of Justice of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem both Proper.
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