Sir. Woodrow Wyatt, 1986 (photo)

Woodrow Wyatt 1918 – 1997) British politician, author, journalist and broadcaster, close to the Queen Mother, Margaret Thatcher and Rupert Murdoch. For the last 20 years of his life, he was chairman of the state horse betting organisation The Tote. He was a Labour MP from 1945 to 1955 and briefly a junior minister, then became a reporter for the BBC's Panorama and again an MP in1959 but rebelled over Steel Nationalisation in 1970 and crossed the political divide. He was a prolific journalist, writing a weekly column 'The Voice of Reason' in the News of the World during the last years of his life. Many regarded him as a maverick. He left three volumes of indiscreet posthumously published diaries. He was knighted in 1983 and became a life peer, Baron Wyatt of Weeford, in 1987.