Sir Edward Richard George Heath KG MBE (9 July 1916 – 17 July 2005), often known as Ted Heath, was a British Conservative politician. He was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 until 1974. Heath was also the leader of the Conservative Party from 1965 until 1975.
Heath was educated at Balliol College, Oxford.
In 1937, as a student when he was travelling in Nuremberg, Heath met three of Adolf Hitler's top Nazi leaders Hermann Goering, Joseph Goebbels and Heinrich Himmler. He described Himmler as the most evil man he had ever met. Heath also travelled to Barcelona in Spain in 1938 at the time of the Spanish Civil War. In 1939, Heath went again to Germany, and returned to Britain before the outbreak of World War II.
Heath was a lifelong bachelor. He never married. His sexual orientation was a matter of dispute during his lifetime, and since. There were rumours that he was gay. Heath never spoke about his sexuality. He was also a classical organist and conductor and a sailor.
In August 2015, ten years after his death, it was claimed that five police forces were investigating Heath about allegations of child sexual abuse. Writing in The Independent, Heath's biographer John Campbell said: "If he had any inclinations that way he would have repressed them; he was too self-controlled and self-contained to do anything that would have risked his career".