A great, gentle and Christian man - Jacob Rees-Mogg MP pays tribute to his late father

By Tim Montgomerie
Follow Tim on Twitter

Yesterday we learnt the news that crossbench peer and former Editor of The Times, William Rees-Mogg had died at the age of 84.

The Prime Minister led the tributes:

"William Rees-Mogg is rightly a  Fleet Street legend - editing The Times through a tumultuous period with flair and integrity. I always found him full of wisdom and good advice - particularly when I first became Leader of the Opposition. My thoughts are with his wife and five children at this sad time."

For today's Mail on Sunday his son and Tory MP, Jacob Rees-Mogg, has penned a moving portrait which ends with an affirmation of Lord Rees-Mogg's deep Christian faith:

"My father never lectured us or thought his views better because he had discussed them with some powerful figure. He viewed his children and grandchildren as serious individuals from the earliest age. He also had an inspirational faith, which helped him approach death without fear. He believed in the teachings of the Catholic Church and had been not only ready but inquisitive about meeting his Maker for many years. He had no doubt that the world to come will be better than this one and wrote in his book, An Humbler Heaven, of his feeling that time was a false constraint against eternity. Some years ago, I was discussing with one of my sisters if we would ever know as much as our father did. We concluded that we never could. His greatness was in his gentleness, his enthusiasm and his spiritual completeness more than in having known almost everyone who was anyone for 60 years. May he rest in peace."