Woodrow Wyatt

Woodrow Lyle Wyatt, Baron Wyatt of Weeford (4 July 1918 – 7 December 1997) was a British politician, author, journalist and broadcaster, close to the Queen Mother, Margaret Thatcher and Rupert Murdoch. For the last twenty years of his life, he was chairman of the state betting organisation The Tote. Early life: 1918−1945 Born in Kingston upon Thames, southwest London, Wyatt was the second son of Robert Harvey Lyle Wyatt, the founder and headmaster of Milbourne Lodge School, Esher, and his wife Ethel (née Morgan). Born on America's Independence Day, he was named after the American President Woodrow Wilson. Wyatt was educated at Eastbourne College and Worcester College, Oxford, where he read jurisprudence and graduated with a second-class degree in 1939. He volunteered for military service ten days before the outbreak of the Second World War with the Suffolk Regiment and rose to the rank of major. Wyatt was posted to Normandy on D-Day plus one and was mentioned in despatches. He was nearly court-martialled after an acrimonious exchange with one of his senior officers. Wyatt was afterwards posted to India.