Earl Jellicoe, KBE, FRS, DSO, MC

Born: 4 April, 1918, in London.

Died: 22 February, 2007, in London, aged 86.

AN AVUNCULAR and gracious man, Earl Jellicoe served with much distinction during the Second World War and played a fundamental part in the advancement of the Special Air Service as a potent fighting force. His escapades behind enemy lines are now part of SAS legend: though Jellicoe - always modest and retiring about his war experiences - seldom talked about them.

Later, Jellicoe was a member of Edward Heath's government, but in 1973 he resigned after it became known that he was involved with call girls. On Jellicoe's immediate resignation Heath wrote "that his actions accorded with the best traditions of British public life."

George Patrick John Rushworth Jellicoe came from aristocratic stock. His father was Admiral Lord Jellicoe the commander of the Royal Navy at the Battle of Jutland, his mother a member of the Cayzer family.

He had been a page at George VI's coronation - along with the sons of Earls Haig and Kitchener. Jellicoe attended Winchester and then got a first in History at Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1939, he was commissioned into the Coldstream Guards.

Much of his war service was spent with No 8 Commando, the SAS and SBS (Special Boat Squadron). Jellicoe's adventurous war was rich in dangerous exploits. He carried out guerrilla raids principally in North Africa, Rhodes, Greece and Crete. In 1942, he was in command of a British, French and Greek raiding party on Crete that destroyed enemy aircraft and vehicles. During this 12-day mission, the party lived rough, finding shelter in whatever the island's wilds had to offer, but succeeded in inflicting considerable damage to the German infrastructure.

For another raid, Jellicoe dressed as a Cretan peasant and gained access to a German hanger, blowing up 16 aircraft. He then went to Tobruk where the British garrison was facing savage fighting and were cut off on the land side by strong enemy forces. Jellicoe led forays behind German lines - he and his men were credited with detonating numerous rail lines, roads and supply depots. In Greece, he cycled into Athens and led the liberation of the city.

Jellicoe was demobbed at the end of the war with the rank of lieutenant-colonel with a string of medals: the DSO, MC, Legion d'honneur, Croix de Guerre and the Greek War Cross. He joined the Foreign Office and served in embassies in Brussels and Washington. In 1958, he decided to leave the Foreign Office and join his mother's family company, the Clan Line, which soon became British and Commonwealth Shipping.

Jellicoe had inherited his title in 1935, but had seldom been active in the House of Lords. In the late Fifties, he made some significant speeches in the House and Harold Macmillan then gave him ministerial office at the Admiralty. In 1964, when the Tories were in opposition, Jellicoe was Lord Carrington's deputy in the upper House.

In fact, Jellicoe was to serve under the next two Tory prime ministers, Sir Alec Douglas-Home and Sir Edward Heath. With Heath, Jellicoe had a somewhat strained relationship, not helped by Jellicoe's saying of the Tory leader: "Not the greatest leader of the opposition, but he has potential to be a great peacetime prime minister."

Jellicoe served under Heath as Lord Privy Seal and then secretary of state for defence. But in 1973, following the rapid departure of Lord Lambton for enjoying the company of call girls Jellicoe admitted that he too had been indulging in similar practices.

Jellicoe's hasty departure from the Heath government left it bereft of a certain stability and a dash of much needed colour.

Instead, Jellicoe carved out a most successful career in business. He joined the boards of Tate & Lyle, Davy Corporation, S G Warburg, Sotheby's, and sat on the council for King's College, London and the British Heart Foundation. As chairman of the British Medical Research Council (1982-90) he offered himself as a guinea pig for the an AIDS vaccine they were developing.

Military colleagues unanimously elected Jellicoe president of the SAS in 1996, and three years later Jellicoe was voted to retain his seat in the Lords. At the time of his death, he was the House's longest serving member.

Jellicoe had a sharp intellect and was a charismatic and active man - he was still skiing at 80.

He was twice married. His first marriage to Patricia O'Kane was dissolved and he married Philippa Dunne in 1966. She survives him, as do two sons and two daughters from his first marriage, a son and two daughters from his second marriage and another son.