Peter Thorneycroft’s contribution was first, as Chairman of the Tory Reform Committee, to formulate a set of political principles to guide his party in the post-war years, then to apply and adapt those principles to the realities with which he had to deal in a succession of major offices of state - President of the Board of Trade, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Minister of Aviation, Minister of Defence and Secretary of State for Defence - and finally to give the support of a highly respected elder statesman to the younger generation of politicians, most notably the formidable Margaret Thatcher, who were to build upon the foundations laid by their predecessors.

This was a truly remarkable man and his story, recounted in Stanley Crooks biography, carries many messages relevant to their task which politicians of the 21st Century would do well to read, mark and inwardly digest as they prepare their programmes.