He was born in Swansea, Wales and studied at the University of Oxford. He was briefly conscripted into the army, before becoming a self-made millionaire in the 1960s. At the 1966 General Election, Heseltine became the Member of Parliament for the constituency of Tavistock in Devon. From 1970 to 1974, he was a junior minister in the government of Edward Heath. From 1979 to 1983, he was in the cabinet of Margaret Thatcher as Secretary of State for the Environment. He was Defence Secretary from 1983 to 1986, but resigned in 1986 and became a backbencher.