We need to take a quick look at Harold Wilson’s 1976 Prime Minister’s Resignation Honours. This was known as the Lavender List allegedly because Lady Falkender had written the draft on lavender coloured paper. How trivial these things sound when you write them down. I remember there were even whispers that Marcia, Lady Falkender, had written the list herself. Harold was beginning to suffer from Alzheimer’s but I don’t think he was that far gone. There were also many stories that Harold had fathered a child with Marcia, this appeared many times in Private Eye. All was strenuously denied despite allegations that copies of the birth certificate were circulating in Fleet Street.
Controversy arose because of the names on the list. The story goes that the civil servants on the Political Honours Scrutiny Committee were of the opinion that at least half of the names would not pass scrutiny.
Lord Kagan was a long time friend of Harold Wilson, he had made his name with his Gannex raincoats which Harold often wore. However Lord Kagan was convicted of fraud in 1980 for which he was sentenced to 10 months and fined £375,000, A considerable sum in those days.
Another recipient, Sir Eric Miller took his own life in 1977 as he was being investigated for fraud.
James Goldsmith was another one knighted. Another business man whose name figured prominently in Private Eye reports of the day.
There are claims that there was nothing wrong with the list but I suspect Harold was rewarded somehow by some of the names he put on the list. Let’s call it retirement planning.
James Jesus Angleton of the CIA had long suspected that Wilson was a Soviet agent though nothing was ever proved. There was a lot of speculation about his time as President of the Board of Trade when he made many visits to Moscow at a time when it was not so easy to travel there.
The whiff of skulduggery remains to this day.
© well_chuffed 2026
