- Veteran British newspaper editor and politician.
- His full title is Baron Deedes of Adlington.
- Editor of The Daily Telegraph (1974-1986)
- In 1974, he became editor of the Daily Telegraph, making him the only man to have been both a Cabinet minister and the editor of a national newspaper. He returned to reporting in 1986 as a special correspondent and columnist. According to the Telegraph, he wrote his final columns on a laptop from his sickbed, a few weeks before his death.
- In 1950, he was elected Conservative MP for Ashford, succeeding Edward Percy. He represented the seat for 24 years. In 1962, he was appointed to the Cabinet by PM Harold Macmillan. He served two years as information minister, charged with improving the government's image.
- Spent most of WWII commanding a company of the Queen's Westminsters, and was awarded the Military Cross.
- In Abyssinia, he met author Evelyn Waugh. Deedes was the inspiration for the naive, plucky journalist William Boot in Waugh's novel "Scoop" (1938).
- Upon leaving school, he turned down a position at Marks and Spencer (large retail chain) and joined the Morning Post newspaper at the age of 16. When he was 22, the Post sent him to Abyssinia to report on the brutal Italian occupation.
- His family's home was Saltwood Castle in Kent, the place whence the knights who murdered St Thomas a Becket set out in 1170.
- He was educated at Harrow School, but the economic crash of 1929 wiped out the family's finances, and he could not afford to attend university.
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