Sir William Radcliffe van Straubenzee MBE (27 January 1924 – 2 November 1999) was a British Conservative Party politician.

[1][2] The family name had come to the United Kingdom when Philip William Casimir van Straubenzee, a Belgian captain in the Dutch Blue Guards,[3] came with Bonnie Prince Charlie to support the Jacobite rising of 1745.

In his will, he had bequeathed a substantial amount of money to his great-nephew, Jane's father Cholmley Turner, a member of parliament for Yorkshire, 1727–1741.

[1][2] He was promoted to Northern Ireland minister from 1972 to 1974, where he fully engaged the Roman Catholic community and often angered the Ulster Unionist Party.

[1][2] With his political career blunted, especially after Thatcher replaced Heath as leader in 1975 and sacked him from the shadow cabinet,[1][2] van Straubenzee focused on his work with the Church of England and backbench efforts.

[1] In government documents released in July 2015, van Straubenzee was named in connection to child sexual abuse, but the context of the reference is not known.

[1] In 1992 after stepping down from the House of Commons, he chaired a Synod inquiry which recommended that the Prime Minister should lose his right to advise the Queen on senior Church appointments, and that vacancies for bishoprics should be advertised.