BRITAIN: Sir Denis Thatcher was remembered by his friend Lord Deedes at a memorial service in London yesterday as "a vast improvement on the Private Eye model". Sir Denis, who had been a major in the Royal Artillery, died in June aged 88.
Lord Deedes told the congregation Sir Denis "was the most straightforward and forthright of men, who would deplore any false note struck in his memory". There was laughter when he said: "He was in real life a vast improvement on the Private Eye model. This was an altogether more considerable figure than those spoof letters to 'Dear Bill' led so many to suppose."
Lord Deedes went on: "Not that I've anything against the 'Eye' letters. Oh no! They marvellously camouflaged his value to the Prime Minister. Kept the reptiles off his trail - that's my profession, he was kind enough to designate as reptiles. But they were seeing Denis through the wrong end of a telescope." - (PA)