Airey Neave Airey Neave in his German escape uniform . Airey Middleton Sheffield Neave , DSO , OBE , MC , ( January 23 , 1916 – March 30 , 1979 ) was a British war hero and later Conservative MP for Abingdon and a prominent politician . He was killed when a mercury -tilt based car bomb exploded under his car as he drove out of the Palace of Westminster car park . The Irish National Liberation Army ( INLA ) claimed responsibility for the killing . Early life Neave was educated at Eton College and went on to study law at Merton College , Oxford . Whilst at Eton Neave wrote a prize-winning essay in 1933 examining the likely consequences of Adolf Hitler 's rise to power and predicted war . When he went to Oxford he purchased and read the full works of Carl von Clausewitz and when asked why , answered : `` since war [ is ] coming , it [ is ] only sensible to learn as much as possible about the art of waging it '' . [ 1 ] Army career He also joined the Territorial Army and became an officer in the regular army at the beginning of World War II . He was sent to France in February 1940 as part of a searchlight regiment . He was wounded and captured by the Germans in Calais on May 23 , 1940 . He was imprisoned at Oflag IX near Spangenberg and in February 1941 moved to Stalag XXa near Thorn in German-occupied western Poland . In April 1941 he escaped from Thorn with Norman Forbes . They were captured near Itow while trying to enter Soviet -controlled Poland and were briefly in the hands of the Gestapo . In May , they were both sent to Oflag IV-C . Neave made an attempt to escape from Colditz on August 28 , 1941 , but his poor German uniform disguise ( fashioned from an RAF tunic dyed green , and a cap made out of a blanket - allegedly a bright green colour due to Neave being colour blind ) led to him being captured while still within the castle ( he passed one sentry post without being halted , but was stopped at the second ) . He tried again on January 5 , 1942 , again in disguise , together with Dutch officer Anthony Luteyn . Better uniforms and escape route ( they made a quick exit from a theatrical production using the trap door beneath the stage ) got them out of the prison and by train and on foot they made it to Switzerland via Leipzig , Ulm and Singen by January 9 . He returned to England through France , Spain and Gibraltar . He was the first British officer to make a `` home run '' from Colditz . He was later recruited as an intelligence agent for MI9 . He also served with the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg , investigating Krupp . As a well-known war hero he was honoured with the role of reading the indictments to the Nazi leaders on trial . He wrote several books about his war experiences . Political career Neave stood at the 1950 election in Thurrock and was elected for Abingdon in a by-election in June 1953 , but his career was held back by a heart attack he suffered in 1959 . In the early 1970s , Neave is alleged to have been involved with some right-wing security service plots against Harold Wilson 's Labour government , such as the Clockwork Orange project in Northern Ireland . In 1975 , Neave was the campaign manager for Margaret Thatcher 's victorious attempt to become leader of the Conservative Party . He was rewarded with the post of head of her private office . He was then appointed shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and was poised to attain the equivalent Cabinet position . He was killed a few weeks before the 1979 general election which brought about a Conservative party victory and Margaret Thatcher to power as Prime Minister . His wife Diana was subsequently elevated to the House of Lords as Baroness Airey of Abingdon . Neave 's biographer Paul Routledge met with a member of the Irish Republican Socialist Party ( the political wing of INLA ) who was involved in the murder of Neave and who told Routledge that Neave `` would have been very successful at that job [ Northern Ireland Secretary ] . He would have brought the armed struggle to its knees '' . [ 2 ] Tony Benn records in his diary ( February 17 , 1981 ) that a journalist from the New Statesman , Duncan Campbell , told him that he had received information from an intelligence agent two years previously that Neave had planned to have Benn assassinated if a Labour Government was elected , James Callaghan resigned and there was a possibility that Benn might be elected Party Leader in his place . Campbell claimed that the agent was ready to give his name and the New Statesman was going to print the story . Benn , however , discounted the validity of the story and wrote in his diary : `` No one will believe for a moment that Airey Neave would have done such a thing '' . [ 3 ] However the magazine printed the story on February 20 , 1981 , naming the agent as Lee Tracey . Tracey claimed to have met Neave and was asked to join a team of intelligence and security specialists which would `` make sure Benn was stopped '' . Tracey planned a second meeting with Neave but Neave was murdered before they could meet again. [ 4 ] Assassination conspiracy theories Kevin Cahill , an Irish investigative journalist , claims Neave was on the verge of a massive overhaul of the security services , possibly involving a merger of MI5 and MI6 and arising from his belief in corruption in the security services . Cahill suggests a link between Neave 's murder and Sir Christopher Sykes ' murder and the attempted murder of Christopher Tugendhat in December 1980 . Cahill claims that Neave would have been head of the combined security services with Sykes and Tugendhat as his deputies , with Sykes responsible for foreign operations and Tugendhat responsible for home operations . Cahill claims to have had a conversation with Neave on St . Patrick 's Day 1979 in the foyer of the Irish embassy in London . Cahill had left a party and was waiting for a taxi . He saw Neave in the room and introduced himself to him as an admirer . Cahill claims that Neave was inebriated and responded `` quite out of the blue '' by saying `` There are going to be changes here , big changes , soon . There is going to be cleaning of the stables ... There has been serious corruption. '' Neave then said that there was `` no use playing games . We have to win ... We will win when the [ corruption ] is sorted out . Count on that. '' Cahill found Neave 's remarks surprising because he seemed internally preoccupied with the UK , with his Northern Ireland brief `` almost a sideline '' . Cahill also thought that Neave 's mention of corruption meant Soviet penetration . Whilst working in the House of Commons as Paddy Ashdown 's research assistant Cahill claims to have had around six conversations with the security staff there . The most frequent remark was that `` everyone knew '' the story behind Neave 's death but that no one could talk about it in detail because it would have been too dangerous . Cahill claims they did not believe INLA murdered Neave but that it was an `` inside job '' . Cahill concluded that Neave was murdered by the security services ; MI6 agents working with the CIA because Neave sought to prosecute senior figures in the intelligence establishment for corruption. [ 5 ] Another person who did not accept the generally accepted version of events was Enoch Powell , the Ulster Unionist MP. Powell claimed in an interview with The Guardian on January 9 , 1984 that the Americans had murdered Neave , along with Lord Mountbatten and Sir Robert Bradford MP. He claimed the evidence came from a member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary with whom he had a conversation. [ 6 ] On October 18 , 1986 Powell returned to the subject of Neave 's death in a speech to Conservative students in Birmingham . He told them that INLA had not killed Neave but was assassinated by `` MI6 and their friends '' . Powell claimed Neave 's Northern Ireland policy had been one of integration with the rest of the UK and that the Americans feared that this process , if implemented by Neave , would have been irreversible . His murder , alleged Powell , was intended to make the British Government adopt a policy more acceptable to America in her aim of a united Ireland within NATO . [ 7 ] Notes 1 Paul Routledge , Public Servant , Secret Agent : The Elusive Life and Violent Death of Airey Neave ( Fourth Estate , 2002 ) , p. 35 . 2 Ibid , p. 360 . 3 Tony Benn , The Benn Diaries ( Arrow , 1996 ) , pp. 506-507 . 4 Routledge , pp. 299-300 . 5 Routledge , pp. 335-336 . 6 Simon Heffer , Like the Roman : The Life of Enoch Powell ( Weidenfeld & Nicolson , 1999 ) , p. 881 . 7 Ibid , p. 906 . Publications The cover of the 1989 UK paperback edition of Neave 's Saturday At M.I . 9 Saturday At MI9 They Have Their Exits Flames of Calais Nuremberg External links Airey Neave Trust About the assassination Categories : Members of the United Kingdom Parliament from English constituencies | Conservative MPs ( UK ) | Terrorism victims | Terrorist incidents in the 1970s | Assassinated English politicians | Terrorism in London | British Army officers | British World War II veterans | Prisoners of war | Former students of Merton College , Oxford | Old Etonians | Officers of the Order of the British Empire | Companions of the Distinguished Service Order | Recipients of the Military Cross | 1916 births | 1979 deaths In other languages : Deutsch | Svenska Routledge35 1 Routledge360 2 Benn506 3 Routledge 4 Routledge 5 Heffer 6 Heffer 7 Routledge35 1 Routledge360 2 Benn506 3 Routledge 4 Routledge 5 Heffer 6 Heffer 7 