The disclosure was made to more than 200 people at a formal lunch in Hamilton's Princess Hotel.

Lord Waddington described the falsehood as the worst "whopper'' he had ever told anyone.

It happened just before he got married to Lady Waddington, he told the Bermuda Insurance Institute Christmas lunch.

"I was obsessed with politics from an early age and I thought that if I confessed this to my wife I wouldn't have the slightest chance of getting her to the altar.'' So he decided to tell her he had got politics "out of his system''.

Lord Waddington, who went on to a distinguished career in Britain's Parliament, assured his audience his 33-year marriage had flourished despite his "youthful indulgence''.

In a light-hearted review of his years in politics, he described the colourful characters he had met -- including the Royal aide who collapsed unconscious in front of the Queen Mother.

"You know, he's always doing that,'' said the Queen Mother.

Lord Waddington also outlined the political background to the arrival of Mrs.

Margaret Thatcher as British Prime Minister and paid tribute to her as a leader.

"Mrs. Thatcher floated into office in 1979 because people really did feel, I believe, that some sort of order had to be restored. Otherwise Britain would become completely ungovernable.

"You won't expect me to be impartial about Mrs. Thatcher,'' he said. When he thought of her he thought of Jane's Fighting Ships, the standard reference book of the world's military vessels.

"All the sort of adjectives you apply to her are ones that are applied to ships, like `indefatigable', `indomitable' and `illustrious'.

"She was the most fantastic woman and I don't think there will be one like her, certainly not in my lifetime.

"I was lucky enough to be a member of a government which had some very real achievements to its credit.'' But he was "tempted to draw a veil over'' his time in the Home Office, Britain's interior ministry.

"I may have had some unfortunate experiences,'' he said, referring to the destruction of a prison by inmates during a riot.

But he added that a former Home Secretary had been forced to deal with a worse security problem - an intruder into Buckingham Palace who sat on the Queen's bed.