Sir John William Frederic Nott (1 February 1932 – 6 November 2024) was a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Defence from 1981 to 1983 (during the Falklands War).

In 1952 he was commissioned as a regular officer in the 2nd Gurkha Rifles, serving in the Malayan Emergency after a period of service with the Royal Scots.

[2] After a brief spell working as a City of London consultant and focusing on managing his Cornish estate, where he grew flowers commercially, he joined the Shadow Cabinet in 1976.

[1] He was made Secretary of State for Trade after Margaret Thatcher won the 1979 general election and became a privy councillor.

Short-term commitment to cost savings meant that defence decisions were made based on affordability at the expense of naval husbandry since prior to the Argentine invasion of the Falklands in 1982, the government had been unwilling to consider such a strategic risk.

Time was of the essence and, by prioritising reduced public spending, the government acknowledged the more immediate risk of national bankruptcy against the less pressing strategic analysis of another war.

[6] Nott was widely criticised by Royal Navy chiefs over the 1981 Defence White Paper for his decision to cut back on forward government naval expenditure during the severe economic recession of the early 1980s; the reductions originally included the proposed scrapping of the Antarctic patrol ship HMS Endurance and the reduction of the surface fleet to 50 frigates and from three to two aircraft carriers.

[13][page needed] This coincided with the cabinet crisis on the future of Westland Helicopters, which severely rocked the Thatcher government.

[3] At the time of his death, he, John Major and Malcolm Rifkind were the only surviving members of the Thatcher cabinet not sitting in either house of Parliament.

[18] He was portrayed by Clive Merrison in the 2002 BBC production of Ian Curteis's controversial The Falklands Play,[19] and by Angus Wright in the film The Iron Lady.