Charles Douglas-Home

Charles Cospatrick Douglas-Home (1 September 1937 – 29 October 1985) was a Scottish journalist who served as editor of The Times from 1982 until his death.

Biography Douglas-Home was the younger son of the Honourable Henry Douglas-Home from his first marriage to Lady Margaret Spencer. His uncle was the former British Prime Minister Sir Alec Douglas-Home. He was a first cousin of John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer, father of Diana, Princess of Wales.

Born in London, he was educated at Eton College (where he was a King's Scholar) and then went into the British Army in 1956 in the Royal Scots Greys. On leaving the Army he spent nine months in Canada, supporting himself by selling books and encyclopaedias. He then served as aide-de-camp to Sir Evelyn Baring who was Governor of Kenya, at the height of the Mau Mau insurgency. During that year (1958–9) Douglas-Home found his taste for international politics. He later wrote the biography Evelyn Baring: the Last Proconsul (1978).

When he returned to the UK he wanted to work in television but was quickly rejected because his accent and approach appeared wrong and he had no journalistic training. This led him to go into newspapers and he worked on the Scottish Daily Express covering breaking news. In 2010, the annual competition invited submissions in areas of his "particular interest ... (namely Defence, Foreign Affairs, Democracy, The Royal Prerogative in the 21st Century, Music)".

Recipients of the Award include: 2025 - The Kyiv Independent 2024 - Ross Clark 2009 - Douglas Murray 1992 - Anne Applebaum

As of 2025, in official records, the Memorial Trust's principal activity is identified as "to nominate a candidate for the annual award and to raise funds for the trust."

Ancestry