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Lord Carrington, the former British Foreign Secretary in Mrs Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government who also chaired the Lancaster House talks that led to the establishment of the Zimbabwean state, has died.

He was 99.

The Lancaster House talks of 1979, were a culmination of a protracted war of liberation between the Patriotic Front (Zanla and Zipra) and the Rhodesian forces led by Ian Douglas Smith.

Former President Robert Mugabe and the late Vice President Dr Joshua Nkomo attended the talks as leaders of the liberation movements Zanu and Zapu, respectively.

The talks were held in the British capital London from September 10 to December 15, 1979, leading to the signing of the Lancaster House Agreement on December 21, 1979 in London, paving way for the holding of the first democratic elections in 1980, and the creation and recognition of the Republic of Zimbabwe.

The last surviving member of Sir Winston Churchill’s post-war government, Peter Carrington famously resigned as Margaret Thatcher’s Foreign Secretary in 1982 after taking responsibility for the Argentinian invasion of the Falkland Islands.

The Eton-educated hereditary peer was a tank commander in the Grenadier Guards during the Second World War, winning the Military Cross in the North-Western Europe campaign.

He took up his seat in the House of Lords in 1946 and went on to become the oldest and longest-serving Member of Parliament’s second chamber.

Fred Hauptfuhrer in an article published on October 22, 1979 titled, “The man in the middle in Zimbabwe-Rhodesia is Britain’s Kissinger – Lord Carrington” wrote in part:

He (Lord Carrington) is the very model of a modern British peer – elegant, self-assured, witty and the toast of his club, the Carlton.

His perfectly cut suits have led one American admirer to dub him ‘the best-dressed man in England.’ Yet as Margaret Thatcher’s aggressive foreign secretary, Lord Carrington (60), has proved unmistakably that he has steel as well as style in pursuit of a diplomatic breakthrough that eluded both Henry Kissinger and Cyrus Vance: peace and a permanent government for the rebel British colony of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia, the tinderbox of Africa.

Given the nation’s fractious and violent history, it is a most audacious goal – and one that puts his political mettle to maximum test.

It was Carrington who convinced Thatcher to withhold recognition from the precarious new government of black Prime Minister Abel Muzorewa – and to use Britain’s leverage to bring all the competing factions together for the first time to work out a new formula for a peaceful transition to black-majority rule.

“Under Kissinger, the initiative in Rhodesia was Anglo-American,” says one US diplomat. “Now it’s Anglo. Any progress in Rhodesia should be credited to Carrington.”

For the past six weeks, all parties, including former Prime Minister Ian Smith and the Patriotic Front guerrilla leaders Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo, sat at the same table at London’s Lancaster House under the moderating influence of Carrington to end Zimbabwe-Rhodesia’s 14 years of civil strife.

To be sure, Smith finally bolted, threatening to muster a white veto of the new constitution Carrington had drafted, which would end white control of the government and armed forces.

More seriously, the Patriotic Front suddenly balked at the document last week, putting Carrington’s entire initiative in jeopardy. Yet, as one frustrated aide of Nkomo said: “If these talks fail, it won’t be Carrington’s fault.” Keeping them going required a feat of virtuoso diplomacy.

The son of a politician, Lord Carrington was born Peter Alexander Rupert Carington – because of heraldic error two centuries ago, his name and his title are spelled differently – and he was weaned on equal parts Eton, Sandhurst (Britain’s West Point) and noblesse oblige.

A genuine World War II hero, he won the military cross (Britain’s second-highest combat decoration) as an officer in the Netherlands with the Grenadier Guards at 19, shortly after he inherited the title.

“I am a product of privilege,” Carrington admits frankly. He lives nobly, with a townhouse in the Knightsbridge section of London and a manor house with formal gardens on 900 acres, most of it a working farm, in Buckinghamshire…

The sixth Baron Carrington takes none of his titles seriously, and his substantial wit is an asset to any colleague of Margaret Thatcher, who is notably lacking in it.

But Carrington contends that such tags as “Attila the Hen” and “the Iron Maiden” are “in a sense complimentary to her. You could never have a good prime minister who is not tough and resolute.”

Their political marriage appears happy, though his appointment was intended at first mainly to appease the more moderate followers of her Tory predecessor Edward Heath, in whose cabinet Carrington served as defence minister.

Besides taking the lead on Zimbabwe-Rhodesia and the horrendous problems of Ireland, Carrington has enlisted Thatcher’s support in a mission he considers “far more important”: to cement Britain’s ties with Europe and to unify Europe as a political and economic force rivalling even the superpowers.

The PM’s country residence, Chequers, is only four miles from Carrington’s (“Too bloody close,” whispers an aide protective of the foreign secretary’s off-time), and weekend consultations are frequent. But Carrington says he and Mrs Thatcher are not personally close. “We get along very well – on foreign affairs,” he says, with classic British candour. “I don’t think Mrs Thatcher has any close friends.”

Those who know him say Carrington was uniquely prepared to carry her banner – particularly into Zimbabwe-Rhodesia.

“He has that great sense of independence that comes from birth and wealth,” explains one seasoned British observer.

“He doesn’t have to care what other people say or think.” Carrington’s intimates say that he also wants to crown his career of near-greatness with a historic accomplishment. Yet on the eve of a reckoning for the talks at Lancaster House, his sense of the moment was couched in a characteristically wry understatement. “I have a lovely job and I enjoy it,” he said. “So far.” – ITV/People/HR