When Margaret Thatcher appointed Lord Carrington, the last Conservative foreign secretary based in the House of Lords, she said she had done so because he only had to walk into a room to establish his natural authority.
Although Carrington admired her sense of duty, the compliment was not completely returned. He once confided: “I think she had hardly been outside the country. From my point of view this was a considerable advantage for she could hardly contradict me when I told her where Rhodesia was.”
