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He was, perhaps, rare among career politicians in having a significant personal 'hinterland'. He was an accomplished musician (the organ being his instrument of choice) and yachtsman, competing internationally for Great Britain in his yacht Morning Cloud III even while Prime Minister. He had served in the Royal Artillery during the Second World War, rising to the rank of Colonel; the war, and the years before the war (when, as a student, he had travelled around Germany, even attending a Nuremberg rally, experiences which had appalled him) helped shape his political and social attitudes.

He was, perhaps, rare among career politicians in having a significant personal 'hinterland'. He was an accomplished musician (the organ being his instrument of choice) and yachtsman, competing internationally for Great Britain in his yacht Morning Cloud III even while Prime Minister. He had served in the Royal Artillery during the Second World War, rising to the rank of Colonel; the war, and the years before the war (when, as a student, he had travelled around Germany, even attending a Nuremberg rally, experiences which had appalled him) helped shape his political and social attitudes.

His personal relations with colleagues and others were more problematic. His personal mannerisms were somewhat cold and aloof, possibly a defense mechanism for a man from the lower middle class, a grammar school boy, mixing, both at Oxford and later in the Conservative Party, in emvironments dominated by the upper middle and upper classes of former public (US: private) schoolboys. During the party leadership campaign in 1975, he declined to canvass personally: that, and previous snubs to party colleagues, almost certainly contributed largely to his defeat. His hauteur was unsoftened by his private life. He never married, though throughout his life he kept by his bed the photograph of a woman to whom he had been attached.

His personal relations with colleagues and others were more problematic. His personal mannerisms were somewhat cold and aloof, possibly a defense mechanism for a man from the lower middle class, a grammar school boy, mixing, both at Oxford and later in the Conservative Party, in environments dominated by the upper middle and upper classes of former public (US: private) schoolboys. During the party leadership campaign in 1975, he declined to canvass personally: that, and previous snubs to party colleagues, almost certainly contributed largely to his defeat. His hauteur was unsoftened by his private life. He never married, though throughout his life he kept by his bed the photograph of a woman to whom he had been attached.

[[Category:United Kingdom Prime Ministers|Heath, Edward]]

[[Category:United Kingdom Prime Ministers|Heath, Edward]]