- published: 08 Oct 2015
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Denis Winston Healey, Baron Healey,CH MBE PC FRSL (30 August 1917 – 3 October 2015) was a British Labour Party politician who served as Secretary of State for Defence from 1964 to 1970 and Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1974 to 1979.
He was a Member of Parliament for 40 years (from 1952 until his retirement in 1992) and was the last surviving member of the cabinet formed by Harold Wilson after the Labour Party's victory in the 1964 general election. A major figure in the party, he was twice defeated in bids for the party leadership.
To the public at large, Healey became well known for his bushy eyebrows and his creative turns of phrase.
Healey was born in Mottingham, Kent, but moved with his family to Keighley in the West Riding of Yorkshire when he was aged five. His parents were Winifred Mary (née Powell; 1889-1988) and William Healey (1886-1977). His middle name was in honour of Winston Churchill.
Healey was one of two siblings. His father was an engineer who worked his way up from humble origins studying at night school. His paternal grandfather was a tailor from Enniskillen in Northern Ireland. Healey was educated at Bradford Grammar School. In 1936 he won an exhibition to Balliol College, Oxford to read Greats and where he became involved in Labour politics, although he was not active in the Oxford Union Society. At Oxford Healey joined the Communist Party in 1937 during the Great Purge but left in 1940 after the fall of France. Also at Oxford, Healey met future Conservative Prime Minister Edward Heath (then known as "Teddy"), whom he succeeded as president of Balliol College Junior Common Room, and who became a lifelong friend and political rival. Healey achieved a double first degree, awarded in 1940.
According to Christian tradition, Saint Denis (also called Dionysius, Dennis, or Denys) is a Christian martyr and saint. In the third century, he was Bishop of Paris. He was martyred, with his companions Rusticus and Eleutherius, in connection with the Decian persecution of Christians, shortly after 250 AD. Denis is said to have picked his head up after being decapitated, walked ten kilometres (six miles), while preaching a sermon of repentance the entire way, making him one of many cephalophores in hagiology. He is venerated in the Roman Catholic Church as patron of Paris, France, and as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. The medieval and modern French name "Denis" derives from the ancient name Dionysius.
Gregory of Tours states that Denis was bishop of the Parisii and was martyred by being beheaded by a sword. The earliest document giving an account of his life and martyrdom, the "Passio SS. Dionysii Rustici et Eleutherii" dates from c. 600, is mistakenly attributed to the poet Venantius Fortunatus, and is legendary. Nevertheless, it appears from the Passio that Denis was sent from Italy to convert Gaul in the third century, forging a link with the "apostles to the Gauls" reputed to have been sent out with six other missionary bishops under the direction of Pope Fabian. There Denis was appointed first Bishop of Paris. The persecutions under Emperor Decius had all but dissolved the small Christian community at Lutetia. Denis, with his inseparable companions Rusticus and Eleutherius, who were martyred with him, settled on the Île de la Cité in the River Seine. Roman Paris lay on the higher ground of the Left Bank, away from the river.
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS (née Roberts; 13 October 1925 – 8 April 2013) was a British stateswoman and politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and the Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the longest-serving British Prime Minister of the 20th century and is currently the only woman to have held the office. A Soviet journalist dubbed her the "Iron Lady", a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style. As Prime Minister, she implemented policies that have come to be known as Thatcherism.
Originally a research chemist before becoming a barrister, Thatcher was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Finchley in 1959. Edward Heath appointed her Secretary of State for Education and Science in his 1970 government. In 1975, Thatcher defeated Heath in the Conservative Party leadership election to become Leader of the Opposition and became the first woman to lead a major political party in the United Kingdom. She became Prime Minister after winning the 1979 general election.
Actors: Anton Lesser (actor), John Woodvine (actor), Peter Cellier (actor), Mark Tandy (actor), Sylvestra Le Touzel (actress), Thomas Wheatley (actor), Anthony Smee (actor), Breffni McKenna (actor), Hugh Simon (actor), Ian Tyler (actor), James Coombes (actor), Alec Linstead (actor), Gerald James (actor), Andrew Paul (actor), Owen Brenman (actor),
Genres: Drama,Actors: Patrick Troughton (actor), Richard Vernon (actor), André Maranne (actor), Robert Stephens (actor), Mark Dignam (actor), Robert Raglan (actor), Jeremy Child (actor), Lloyd Lamble (actor), Alexander Knox (actor), Guy Deghy (actor), Robert Beatty (actor), Bruce Boa (actor), Michael Gough (actor), Gerald Sim (actor), Peter Cellier (actor),
Genres: Drama,