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..I do not like the term heroes being banded around too loosely. To me real heroes are the lads on the front line in combat situations where they are going beyond the normal call of duty. But I am willing to accept looser definition as below specially as one true hero, the Duke of Wellington is among them.
The following list of Tory heroes was written by Stephen Parkinson of the Conservative History Group and appeared on ConHome today.
Some names and what they did may surprise some people who have a rather warped idea of what the Conservative Party is all about.
Labour and the LibDems(Liberals and Whigs before them) cannot produce a list of such distinction and with such great achievements.
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William Wilberforce (1759-1833) - the abolition of slavery
Although, like his great friend Pitt the Younger, he rejected a party label, Wilberforce was a man of deep conservative principles. An evangelical Christian convert, he waged a long campaign for the abolition of slavery. It led to the Slavery Abolition Act 1833; he died just three days after learning that it would become law.
1st Duke of Wellington (1769-1852) - victory at Waterloo and Catholic Emancipation
After a military career which brought him great fame - particularly following his victory against Napoleon at Waterloo - Wellington went into politics. As Prime Minister, he overcame vehement opposition to pass the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829, granting almost full civil rights to Catholics in the United Kingdom.
Sir Robert Peel (1788-1850) - father of modern policing
As Home Secretary for most of the 1820s, Peel made a number of significant reforms in law and order. His greatest legacy was the Metropolitan Police Act 1829, which established the first modern police force - its officers known as 'bobbies' in his honour. By 1857, all cities in the UK were required to have their own police force.
7th Earl of Shaftesbury (1801-85) - social reformer
From his maiden speech supporting improvements to lunatic asylums, Anthony Ashley-Cooper devoted himself to social reform - earning the sobriquet 'the poor man's Earl'. Though he barely held office, he helped to enact a number of reforms - improving factory conditions, limiting the use of child labour, and outlawing the employment of women and children in coal mines.
Benjamin Disraeli (1804-81) - bridged the gap between the 'two nations'
Disraeli identified 'two nations' - the rich and the poor - in his 1845 novel, Sybil, and committed the Conservative Party to 'elevat[ing] the condition of the people'. He gave the vote to working men in urban constituencies, and enacted many social reforms - including, in 1875 alone, the Artisans' Dwellings Act (enabling slum clearance), the Climbing Boys Act (banning juvenile chimney sweeps), a Public Health Act, and measures to allow peaceful picketing.
3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1830-1903) - Villa Toryism
When Clement Attlee was asked to name the greatest Prime Minister of his lifetime, he replied: 'Salisbury'. Initially wary of mass democracy, Salisbury was in fact the most electorally successful Tory leader of the nineteenth century, winning new support among the suburban middle class and transforming the Conservatives into a popular, national party committed to the maintenance of the United Kingdom.
Emmeline Pankhurst (1858-1928) - founded the Women's Social and Political Union
After a left-wing youth, the famous leader of the suffragettes joined the Conservative Party under Stanley Baldwin in 1926 and was selected to contest the 1929 election in Stepney. However, weakened by periods of imprisonment, she died in 1928 - the year a Conservative Government gave women the vote on the same terms as men.
Neville Chamberlain (1869-1940) - welfare reform after the Great Depression
Though his premiership was overshadowed by foreign policy, Chamberlain had a remarkable domestic record. His housing subsidies stimulated a building programme which swept away the slums and helped bring Britain out of depression. Rent controls were introduced to protect the less well-off, along with unemployment benefit, health insurance, and paid holidays for most families.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) - Second World War leader
From a lone voice in the wilderness to a triumphant wartime premier, Churchill's blood, toil, tears, sweat - and rhetoric - saw Britain through her darkest hour. His acceptance of the 1945 Labour landslide brought the Conservatives back to power within six years - with a rejuvenated Party organisation and its largest ever membership (nearly 3 million).
R.A. Butler (1902-82) - 1944 Education Act
The greatest achievement of his long and distinguished political career, Butler's 1944 Education Act extended free education to all. Grammar schools gave bright children from poor backgrounds the chance to rise up by merit, boosting social mobility and helping a generation to climb to the top of British society. Some of them, sadly, pulled the ladder up behind them.
Harold Macmillan (1894-1986) - built a property-owning democracy
As Housing Minister, Macmillan rashly pledged to build 300,000 new homes a year - but he delivered, and home ownership rose from under a third to nearly half by the end of his time as premier. The standard of living went up too (by 50 per cent), with earnings rising more than twice as quickly as prices.
Margaret Thatcher (1925-) - where there was despair, brought hope
Mrs. Thatcher smashed the post-war consensus to heal a country which had become the sick man of Europe. By 1990, Britain had had eight years of economic growth, 27 million people were in work - the highest ever figure - and the number of strikes was the lowest for half a century. Privatisation raised £27.5 billion for the public finances, nearly a quarter of the adult population owned shares, and more than a million council tenants were given the Right to Buy their own homes.
John Major (1943-) - cut crime; boosted growth; created the National Lottery
As well as initiating the Northern Ireland peace process and laying the foundations for Britain's longest period of continuous economic growth, Major established the National Lottery. It has already raised more than £21 billion for good causes, supporting nearly 90 per cent of the British athletes at London 2012. With the help of his Home Secretary, Michael Howard, he turned the tide on crime - which fell by 18 per cent 1992-7.
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There is just one bit I would differ with - John Major, - not my favourite leader on the Conservative Party at all. It is wrong to refer to the 'longest period of continuous growth' with any kind of sense of achievement. That period of growth was only sustained by an appalling mismanagement of the economy by his successor built on a bubble of debt for which we are now paying.
