Past Pupils

Ralph (Lord) Harris (1943)
Ralph died suddenly at home on 19th October 2006 due to an aortic
aneurism. Beloved husband of Josie, loving father of Angela, Simon and Julian, grandfather of Fleur, Anna and Marion

Lord Harris of High Cross, should not be confused with Lord Harris of Greenwich, Lord Harris of Haringey or Lord Harris of Peckham.

The ramrod-erect military figure with a bristling moustache, a director of Rupert Murdoch's Times Newspapers, was the first name for a peerage on Lady Thatcher's 1979 honours list. He sat on the crossbenches in the Lords to demonstrate his independence.

A Tottenham grammar school boy and Queens College (Cambridge) graduate. Gained a 1st Class Honours degree, also a MA at Canterbury. Lord - then plain Ralph - Harris lectured at St Andrews university before being rejected by the voters in a couple of Scottish seats during the 1950s.

His far right views saw him blaming the poor for having little money and backing the successful campaign to liberalise shopping hours including Sunday opening.

He is a founder president of the Institute of Economic Affairs that helped deliver Thatcherism, supporter of the independent University of Buckingham and once led the anti-Europe Bruges Group .

A pipe smoker who carries as many as three spares in his pocket, Lord Harris was in the vanguard of the failed campaign to overturn smoking bans on many train services despite admitting he never commuted by rail. He is also the Chairman of FORREST the pro-smoking campaign group.

His books include a biography of wet Tory Rab Butler, a treatise on hire purchase in the market economy, numerous attacks on the welfare state, and a 1971 volume, Down with the Poor.

Political economy lecturer, St Andrew's University 1949-56; Leader writer, Glasgow Herald 1956; General Director, Institute of Economic Affairs 1957-87, Chair, Institute of Economic Affairs 1987-89, Director, Times Newspapers Holdings Ltd 1988-; Chair, Bruges Group 1989-91; Founder President, Institute of Economic Affairs 1990-; Joint Chair, International Centre for Research into Economic Transformation (Moscow) 1990-95

Two members of the School Masonic Lodge attended the Memorial Service to Lord Harris of High Cross at St. John the Baptist, Barnet, on Wednesday 1st November. There was a large and distinguished gathering, including Dame Margaret Thatcher and senior members of the Conservative Party and past members of her Cabinet.

Ralph's brilliance was evident at Tottenham Grammar School, where he won an exhibition to Queen's College, Cambridge, from whence he graduated with a First in Economics.
After coming down from Cambridge, Ralph was appointed lecturer in political economy at St. Andrews University, and during his time there stood unsuccessfully for Parliament twice, once as a Liberal Unionist and once as a Conservative.

In 1956 Ralph, together with farming entrepreneur Antony Fisher and economist Arthur Seldon, set up the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), an economic/political charity. The IEA prepared numerous pamphlets and booklets on current problems - pensions, the Common Market, hire purchase and advertising, amongst others, which proved influential in government circles.

Ralph was, above all, an individualist who followed the free market doctrines of Adam Smith and had an aversion to stifling governmental controls. He was a founder or member of many freedom-loving societies: the Wincott Foundation (social affairs), Civitas (the think tank which developed from the IEA's health and
welfare unit), and the Bruges Group (anti E.U.).

For his part in these influential groups he was given a life peerage in 1979, Mrs. Thatcher's first Life Peer. In the House of Lords he was a cross-bencher, always voting according to his conscience rather than for any one political party.

Smokers will remember him as the founder of FOREST (the Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco), and those who knew him will remember him for his meerschaum pipes and fancy waistcoats. He was a charming and remarkable man, probably our most intellectual and influential Old Boy.
E.G.S