Sir Walter Bromley-Davenport was the Tory MP for Knutsford, and an opposition whip shortly after the war. Once, seeing an unfamiliar figure leaving the building, he assumed this was a Tory MP trying to evade a three-line whip. When the man refused to stop, Sir Walter kicked him down the stairs. It turned out to be the Belgian ambassador. The consequent vacancy in the whips’ office was filled by Lt. Col. Edward Heath, in his first front-bench job. The Belgian ambassador has a lot to answer for.
