Editing Alec Douglas-Home (section)

==Retirement (1974–1995)==
[[File:Alec Douglas-Home, by Allan Warren.jpg|thumb|left|alt=head and shoulders image of clean shaven, slim, bald man of mature years; the same man in the picture at the head of the page|Home, photographed by [[Allan Warren]], in 1986]]
At the [[February 1974 United Kingdom general election|February 1974 general election]] the Heath government was narrowly defeated. Douglas-Home, then aged 70, stepped down at the [[October 1974 United Kingdom general election|second election]] of that year, called in October by the minority Labour government in the hope of winning a working majority. He returned to the House of Lords at the end of 1974 when he accepted a [[life peer]]age, becoming known as '''''Baron Home of [[the Hirsel]]''', of [[Coldstream]] in the [[County of Berwick]]''.<ref>{{London Gazette|mode=cs2 |date=24 December 1974 |issue=46441 |pp=1–2}}</ref>

Between 1977 and 1989 Home was Governor of [[I Zingari]], the nomadic cricket team.{{Sfnp|ps=none|Thorpe|1997|p=463}} In retirement he published three books:  ''The Way The Wind Blows'' (1976), described by Hurd as "a good-natured autobiography, with perhaps more anecdotes than insights", ''Border Reflections'' (1979),{{Sfnp|ps=none|Home|1979|loc=''[[passim]]''}} and his correspondence with his grandson [[Matthew Darby]], ''Letters to a Grandson'' (1983).{{Sfnp|ps=none|Home|1983|loc=''passim''}} In the 1980s Home increasingly spent his time in Scotland, with his family. He was a keen fisherman and enjoyed shooting. Hurd writes that "there was no sudden moment when he abandoned politics", rather that "his interventions became fewer and fewer".<ref name=dnb/> His last speech in the House of Lords was in 1989, when he spoke against Hurd's proposals for prosecuting war criminals living in Britain: "After such a lapse of time justice might not be seen to be done. It would be dangerous to rely on memories of events that occurred so long ago. It was too late to reopen the issue."<ref>{{Cite news |date=5 December 1989 |title=Hitler must not have posthumous victory, peers told |url=http://docs.newsbank.com/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info:sid/iw.newsbank.com:UKNB:LTIB&rft_val_format=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rft_dat=0F91039F75C28CC3&svc_dat=InfoWeb:aggregated5&req_dat=102CDD40F14C6BDA |url-access=registration |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211108141104/http://docs.newsbank.com/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info%3Asid%2Fiw.newsbank.com%3AUKNB%3ALTIB&rft_val_format=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=0F91039F75C28CC3&svc_dat=InfoWeb%3Aaggregated5&req_dat=102CDD40F14C6BDA |archive-date=8 November 2021 |access-date=8 November 2021 |work=The Times |via=newsbank.com}}</ref>  His withdrawal from public affairs became more marked after the death of his wife in 1990, after 54 years of marriage.<ref name=dnb/>