George Younger loses long battle with cancer

Lord Younger of Leckie, a former defence secretary, Scottish secretary and chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland, died yesterday after fighting a long battle with cancer. He was 71.

During his highly successful Commons career he was one of Margaret Thatcher's staunchest and most loyal allies. He was the man who master-minded her successful leadership campaign in the face of a challenge from the stalking-horse Tory backbench challenger Sir Anthony Meyer in 1989.

Lord Younger, formerly George Younger, was one of the most popular and politically adept Tories of his era. It was a teenage ambition of his to become Defence Secretary, a post he ultimately acquired almost by default in 1986. Michael Heseltine, then Defence Secretary, had stormed out of the Cabinet on 9 January that year over the Westland Helicopter affair.

His chairmanship of the Royal Bank of Scotland, from which he retired in 2001, coincided with the most successful decade in its history, culminating in the transformational acquisition of NatWest in March 2000.