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John Edward Poynder Grigg (15 April 1924 – 31 December 2001) was a British writer, historian and politician. He was the 2nd Baron Altrincham from 1955 until he disclaimed that title under the Peerage Act on the day it received Royal Assent in 1963.
Grigg edited the National and English Review (1954–1960) as his father had done. He was a liberal Tory but was defeated at the 1951 and 1955 general elections. In an article for the National and English Review in August 1957, Grigg argued that Queen Elizabeth II's court was too upper-class and British, and instead advocated a more "classless" and Commonwealth court. He also likened the Queen's voice to that of "a priggish schoolgirl". He was slapped across the face by a man in public, and was attacked by the majority of the press, with a minority, including the New Statesman and Ian Gilmour's The Spectator, agreeing with some of Grigg's ideas.
As a historian, his most notable work was an uncompleted four-volume biography of Prime Minister David Lloyd George; he had reached the end of the First World War in 1918 by the time of his death.
From Eton College, Grigg joined the British Army and was commissioned as a second lieutenant into his father's regiment, the Grenadier Guards, in 1943 during the Second World War (1939–1945). While in the British Army, Grigg served as an officer of the Guard at St James's Palace and Windsor Castle, Berkshire, and saw action as a platoon commander in the 1st Battalion, Grenadier Guards, part of the 5th Guards Armoured Brigade of the Guards Armoured Division, against the German Army in France and Belgium. Towards the end of the war, he became an intelligence officer.
After the war, Grigg read Modern History at New College, Oxford. While at Oxford University, he gained a reputation for academic excellence, winning the University Gladstone Memorial Prize in 1948. In the same year, after graduating with second-class honours,Geoffrey Wheatcroft, 'Grigg, John Edward Poynder, second Baron Altrincham (1924–2001)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Jan 2005; online edn, January 2011. Grigg joined the National Review, which was owned and edited by his father.
When Tony Benn (the Viscount Stansgate) succeeded in obtaining passage of the Peerage Act, Grigg was the second person (after Benn himself) to take advantage of the new law and disclaim his peerage. In 1997, he wrote that he was "entirely opposed to hereditary seats in Parliament" and added that at that time in 1963 he "felt honour-bound to disclaim, though it was a bore to have to change my name again". Grigg never achieved his ambition of election to the House of Commons. In 1963, he was publicly rejected by the Conservatives and passed over for being chosen as Tory candidate for Morecambe and Lonsdale. In the 1990s Grigg told Ben Pimlott that this was because of his views on the Royal Family being viewed with disdain by the Tories. Grigg left the Conservative Party for the SDP in 1982.
In 1956, Grigg attacked Anthony Eden's Conservative government for its handling of the Suez Crisis, and pressed for an immediate withdrawal of British forces from Port Said. He followed his father in championing reform of the House of Lords, although he added that, in lieu of reform, abolition might be the only alternative. He also advocated the introduction of women priests into the Anglican Church.
In an August 1957 article, "The Monarchy Today", Grigg argued his opinions on the young Queen Elizabeth II and her Court. Of the Royal Family, he said: "They have to perform the seemingly impossible task of being at once ordinary and extraordinary":
Grigg was critical of the Debutantes' Parties: "... a grotesque survival from the Monarchy's 'hierarchical' past": "These Parties should certainly have been quietly discontinued in 1945. They pander to snobbishness and give the Queen the appearance of standing at the apex of an aristocratic and plutocratic pyramid. People have a right to 'bring out' their daughters in whatever way they please, but the Crown's benison should be reserved for those who have qualified for it by public service."
Continuing on with the theme of aristocracy, he wrote: "The present composition of the Court emphasizes the social lopsidedness to which the Monarchy is still prone. The Queen's entourage – those who serve her from day to day, who accompany her when she travels and sit with her when she eats – are almost without exception people of the 'tweedy' sort. Such people may be shrewd, broad-minded and thoroughly suitable for positions at Court, but the same is true of many who are not 'tweedy'; and the fact that the Queen's personal staff represents almost exclusively a single social type creates an unfortunate impression... The Queen should surely now be surrounded by advisers and companions with as many different backgrounds as possible. A truly classless and Commonwealth Court would not only bear eloquent witness to the transformed nature of the Monarchy, but would also give the Queen and her Family the advantage of daily contact with an interesting variety of personalities and points of view."
Grigg was critical of the Queen's style of public speaking, describing it as "frankly 'a pain in the neck:
At the time in 1957, as Lord Altrincham, Grigg was denounced by Altrincham Town Council for his views. A statement issued by the Council on 6 August stated: "We the elected representatives of the ratepayers of this Ancient Town of Altrincham present at this informal meeting most strongly deplore the article written by Lord Altrincham and wish to completely disassociate this borough from the comments and statements contained in that article. At the same time we desire that it should be known by her Majesty the Queen that no town has a greater sense of loyalty and devotion to the Crown than the borough of Altrincham."
At the start of the controversy, Grigg was invited by Granada Television to be interviewed on their news programme Impact. The interview took place on the evening of 6 August 1957, and was conducted by Robin Day. Grigg defended his article in front of Day, stating that he did not wish to apologise or retract what he had written, but saying that he did regret that anyone should have thought he was hostile to the Queen. He said that his aim had been to bring about a change in the atmosphere which surrounded the Queen and the Monarchy across the whole country.
After the interview, Grigg left Television House in the company of Ludovic Kennedy. As the two of them came out onto the street, Philip Kinghorn Burbidge, a member of the far-right, extreme-nationalist League of Empire Loyalists, came up to them and slapped Grigg's face, saying: "Take that from the League of Empire Loyalists." Burbidge, who was 64 years old, was taken away by the police. Grigg said of the incident: "There was no strength behind the blow. I have not had to have any attention. There were quite a lot of bystanders who saw this happen. They all seemed tremendously friendly towards me."
Burbidge later pleaded guilty to a charge of using insulting behaviour. He was fined 20 shillings. The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Sir Laurence Dunne, said of him: "I suppose 96 per cent of the population of this country were disgusted and offended by what was written, but I suppose that 99.9 per cent recurring of these would hesitate to select you as their champion. Your action only made a most unsavoury episode more squalid. In a case like this the weapon to be used is the weight of public opinion and not to make it the excuse for a gutter brawl."
Burbidge himself said: "Such actions are foreign to my nature. Due to the scurrilous attack by Lord Altrincham I felt it was up to a decent Briton to show resentment. What I feared most was the overseas repercussions and publication in American newspapers. I thought our fortunes were at a low ebb and such things only made them more deplorable."
Grigg was interviewed by Pathé News. Describing why he had written his article, he said, "I'm a journalist. I'm a subject of the Queen. I care very much for her future and I want her reign to be as successful as it possibly can be." Asked if he was at all repentant of his criticisms, he said, "No I can't say I am. I mean, everything controversial provokes criticism. But I'm quite sure that this needed saying, and from the letters that I'm getting in enormous numbers, I am convinced that a majority of the people in this country, and in other countries of the Commonwealth, are on my side in this matter. The letters at the moment are running 3 to 1 in my favour. But even if they weren't, I still would not be repentant, because I am sure what I said was true, and needed saying." On the Royal Court and the Queen's speeches, he said, "Well very briefly, the trouble about the Court is that it's all drawn from one small section of this country. It should be drawn from every country of the Commonwealth, and from every section of the community. That's what I feel about the Court. About the Queen's speeches, I feel her own natural self is not allowed to come through. It's a sort of synthetic creature that speaks. Not the Queen as she really is. And if she herself was allowed to speak, the effect would be wonderful."
Robert Menzies, the Prime Minister of Australia, was publicly critical of Grigg, describing his article as "shocking criticism": "It is a pity that it should have been lifted out of a journal with not a very great circulation and given an audience of many millions in the world Press. I think the Queen performs her duties in the Royal office with perfection, with great poise, great character, and great intelligence. If it is now to be said that she reads a speech I might say that many of the great statesmen of the world will have to face the same charge and had better be criticised for it."
Grigg responded to Menzies' criticism in a front page interview with the Melbourne Herald. "He is stuffily subservient... typical of the worst attitude towards the Crown... he puts the Queen on a pedestal and genuflects. He simply blindly worships the Sovereign as someone above criticism. Far from doing the Queen service he is doing her a disservice. I regard his attitude as disgusting, and if it were accepted by most of the Queen's subjects – ordinary people like you and me – the monarchy would be in grave danger. Please don't think I haven't great respect for Mr. Menzies. In the sort of Commonwealth court I visualize I would like to see men of Mr. Menzies' brilliance around the Queen, but not men of his particular view – by that, I don't mean his political view, but his approach towards the Monarchy."
Grigg also commented on the advice Menzies had given to the Queen during her 1954 tour of Western Australia. He said there had been a mild outbreak of poliomyelitis at the time. Although the risk of the Queen catching polio was minute, especially when compared to that for the thousands of people who crowded into the streets to see her, as a result of Menzies' advice, the Queen did not shake hands with anyone during her entire visit there. Of the Queen, Grigg said: "I feel that if the situation was put to her properly she would have seen that it wasn't the way a Sovereign acts."
Grigg took part in another Granada broadcast, Youth Wants To Know, this time from Granada Studios in Manchester. He stood by his criticism of the Queen spending a whole week watching racing at Goodwood: "She takes quite a lot of holidays as it is... If this were pointed out to her, I'm sure she would be the first to see it." Grigg also stated his belief that "the reason that our monarchy is so strong is that it is subject to comment and criticism." He said that he had not foreseen his article gaining "such very large publicity" and declared: "One can be clumsy and nevertheless have convictions."
Looking back, Grigg was critical of 1950s royal coverage, citing what he called its "blandness and servility": "I was rather worried by the general tone of comment, or the absence of comment really in regards to the monarchy – the way we were sort of drifting into a kind of Japanese Shintoism, at least it seemed to me, in which the monarchy was not so much loved as it should be and cherished, but worshipped in a kind of quasi-religious way. And criticism of the people who were actually embodying it at the time was completely out."
Grigg also wrote a number of other books, including: Two Anglican Essays (discussing Anglicanism and changes to the Church of England), Is the Monarchy Perfect? (a compendium of some of his writings on the Monarchy), a biography of Nancy Astor; (1980). 9780283986314, Sidgwick & Jackson. ISBN 9780283986314 Volume VI in the official history of The Times covering the Thomson proprietorship; (1993). 9780723006107, Office of the Times. ISBN 9780723006107 and The Victory that Never Was, in which he argued that the Western Allies prolonged the Second World War for a year by invading Europe in 1944 rather than 1943. (1980). 9780413396105, Eyre Methuen. ISBN 9780413396105
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