Lord Armstrong of Ilminster (pictured), who has died aged 93, served in senior Public Service roles under three United Kingdom Prime Ministers in the 1970s and 1980s.
He became forever associated with the phrase “being economical with the truth” for his role in the Australian Spycatcher trial in 1986.
The British Government was seeking to ban the publication of the autobiography of former senior MI5 officer and Assistant Director, Peter Wright.
Mr Wright had written the book in Tasmania following his retirement.
Publication in the UK was banned after the Government alleged it leaked confidential information.
The then Sir Robert Armstrong was sent as a key witness when the British Government sought a similar order in Australia.
He was widely ridiculed in the British press for his ambiguous and apparently deceptive answers in exchanges with Mr Wright’s lawyer, Malcolm Turnbull, later to become Australian Prime Minister.
Sir Robert became known for his definition of the difference between a lie and a misleading impression as “perhaps being economical with truth”.
The Government’s bid to have the book banned in Australia was unsuccessful, and publicity from the court case helped Spycatcher become a bestseller.
Mr Turnbull famously compared Sir Robert to the obfuscating and manipulative Sir Humphrey Appleby from the television series, Yes, Minister.
Lord Armstrong was made a life peer in 1987 and sat in the House of Lords as an independent crossbencher.
From 1994 to 2006, he served as Chancellor of the University of Hull, and was Chair of the Sir Edward Heath Charitable Foundation until 2013.
He was also strongly against the UK’s decision to quit the European Union, saying: “I fear leaving the European Union will prove to be a threat to the integrity of the United Kingdom and a threat to the peace process in Northern Ireland and our relations with the Republic of Ireland.”
London, 5 April 2020
