Lieutenant Colonel Airey Middleton Sheffield Neave, DSO, OBE, MC, TD (/ˈɛəri ˈniːv/) (23 January 1916 – 30 March 1979) was a British soldier, lawyer and Member of Parliament (MP) from 1953 until his assassination in 1979.

The family came to prominence as merchants in the West Indies during the 18th century and were raised to the baronetage during the life of Richard Neave, Governor of the Bank of England.

[3] When Neave went to Oxford University, he purchased and read the entire written works of the general and military theorist Carl von Clausewitz.

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 travelled to Leipzig and Ulm and finally reached the border to Switzerland near Singen.

In Western Europe, about 5,000 British and American military personnel were rescued by the escape organizations and repatriated to the United Kingdom, mostly through neutral Spain, before D-Day.

After D-Day in Operation Marathon, Neave journeyed to France and Belgium and, with help from the Comet Line and the Resistance, rescued more than 300 allied airmen who had taken refuge in forest camps after being shot down.

[18] As a well-known war hero – as well as a qualified lawyer who spoke fluent German – he was honoured with the role of reading the indictments to the Nazi leaders on trial.

During the final two months of 1974, Neave had asked Keith Joseph, William Whitelaw and Edward du Cann to stand against Heath, and said that in the case of any of them challenging for the party leadership, he would be their campaign manager.

When all three refused to stand, Neave agreed to be the campaign manager for Margaret Thatcher's attempt to become leader of the Conservative Party, which was eventually successful.

He was then appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and, at the time of his death, was poised to attain the equivalent Cabinet position in the event of the Conservatives winning the general election of 1979.

Neave was author of the new and radical Conservative policy of abandoning devolution in Northern Ireland if there was no early progress in that regard, and concentrating on local government reform instead.

This integrationist policy was hastily abandoned by Humphrey Atkins, who became Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, the role Neave had shadowed.

Tracey said he had met Neave, who asked him to join a team of intelligence and security specialists which would "make sure Benn was stopped".

Neave had been pressing within Conservative Party circles and in Parliament throughout the Troubles for the British Government to abandon its strategy of containment (including "Ulsterisation") of Irish republican paramilitarism within Northern Ireland, and switch to one of pursuing its military defeat.

[33][34]Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan said: "No effort will be spared to bring the murderers to justice and to rid the United Kingdom of the scourge of terrorism.

Neave's wife Diana, whom he married on 29 December 1942, was subsequently elevated to the House of Lords as Baroness Airey of Abingdon.

[39] Enoch Powell claimed that his death was the result of a British-American conspiracy to secure a united Irish state that would be a part of NATO.

[40][39] Neave was portrayed by Geoffrey Pounsett in Nuremberg (2000), Dermot Crowley in Margaret (2009), Nicholas Farrell in The Iron Lady (2011) (in a piece of dramatic licence Thatcher is shown in that film as an eyewitness to his death) and Tim McInnerny in Utopia (2014).

This led to condemnation of the broadcaster, with Norman Tebbit, a friend and political colleague of Neave, saying "To attack a man like that who is dead and cannot defend himself is despicable".