Billy Hughes (educationist)

Herbert Delauney Hughes (7 September 1914 – 15 November 1995), known as Billy Hughes, was a British adult educationist and Labour Party politician. He was a member of parliament (MP) from 1945 to 1950 and principal of Ruskin College from 1950 to 1979.

Career

His father Arthur was a secondary school teacher, and mother Maggie was a former elementary school headteacher who educated him at home until age eleven. Hughes had been born in

modern history, having been chair of the Oxford University Labour Club

.

He started training as a schoolteacher at

Manchester University, but left to work in London for the New Fabian Research Bureau (NFRB), which merged in 1938 with the Fabian Society, of which he became secretary. He was elected as a councillor on Lambeth borough council, and in 1937 he married (Winifred) Beryl Parker (died 1995), sister of Romford MP John Parker

; they had no children.

During World War II he served with the Royal Artillery, and at the 1945 general election he was as Member of Parliament for Wolverhampton West, holding the seat until the constituency was abolished in 1950. At the 1950 general election, he stood in the new Wolverhampton South West constituency, but was defeated by the Conservative Party candidate Enoch Powell.^[1]

In the

parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to the Secretary of State for Education, Ellen Wilkinson, whose secretary from 1937 to 1941 had been his wife Beryl. After Wilkinson's death in 1947, he continued for a year as PPS to her successor George Tomlinson, before becoming PPS to War Office minister Michael Stewart

.

Ruskin College

Later that year, he was appointed as principal of

Local Education Authorities to provide grants to the college's students. It was while laying the foundation stone of the college's Steve Biko building in October 1976 that the prime minister, James Callaghan, launched what became known as a "great debate"^[4] on educational standards. Callaghan questioned "the new informal methods of teaching which seem to produce excellent results when they are in well-qualified hands but are much more dubious when they are not".^[5]

Hughes involvement in adult education extended beyond Ruskin and continued into his retirement. He was president of the Workers' Educational Association, served on the Russell committee on adult education (1969–73), chaired the Adult Literacy Resource Agency,^[4] and also served on the advisory council for adult and continuing education, the National Institute of Adult and Continuing Education, and the Civil Service Arbitration Tribunal.

He survived his wife by four months, and died at his home in Merton, Bicester, on 15 November 1995 aged 81.

Publications

Hughes, Herbert Delauney; Miller, G. D. (1947). Advance in Education. Labour Discussion Series. no. 15. London.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)^[6]
Hughes, Herbert Delauney (1955). A Socialist Education Policy. Fabian Research Series, No. 173. London: Fabian Society.^[6]
Hughes, Herbert Delauney (1947). Towards a Classless Society. Discussion Series. no. 3. London: Fabian Publications and Victor Gollancz.^[6]

Notes

^ United Kingdom general election results, 1950 Archived 29 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine, at Richard Kimber's Political Science Resources
^ Hansard, 9 July 2001, Column 579 Archived 30 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine: maiden speech of Rob Marris MP
^ What is Ruskin College? Archived 5 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine, on the Ruskin College website
^ ^a ^b Callaghan, James (18 October 1976). "Towards a national debate". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 July 2007.
^ Eason, Gary (27 March 2005). "Callaghan's great education debate". BBC News. Retrieved 24 July 2007.
^ ^a ^b ^c British Library Cataologue

References

Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Sir Robert Bird, Bt.	Member of Parliament for Wolverhampton West 1945–1950	Constituency abolished
Party political offices
Preceded by Eirene White	Chair of the Fabian Society 1959 – 1960	Succeeded by Baron Faringdon
Preceded by John Parker	President of the Fabian Society 1988 – 1993	Succeeded by Peter Archer
Academic offices
Preceded by Ellen McCullough	President of the Workers' Educational Association 1971–1981	Succeeded by Bernard Jennings

[1] United Kingdom general election results, 1950 Archived 29 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine, at Richard Kimber's Political Science Resources

[2] Hansard, 9 July 2001, Column 579 Archived 30 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine: maiden speech of Rob Marris MP

[3] What is Ruskin College? Archived 5 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine, on the Ruskin College website

[callaghan-speech-4] Callaghan, James (18 October 1976). "Towards a national debate". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 July 2007.

[BBC-great-debate-5] Eason, Gary (27 March 2005). "Callaghan's great education debate". BBC News. Retrieved 24 July 2007.

[british-library-6] British Library Cataologue

[1]

[4]

[5]

[6]

v t e Fabian Society
Chairs	G. D. H. Cole Laski G. D. H. Cole Parker Albu Wilson M. Cole Skeffington Jenkins White Hughes Faringdon Crosland Stewart Abel-Smith Benn Townsend Rodgers Blenkinsop Shore Balogh Bray Hall Lester Judd Bosanquet Crouch Radice Leonard Whitehead Archer Williams Lipsey Meldram Jeger Blackstone McIntosh Mitchell Butler Gould Bean Cook McDonald Hayter Pimlott Dubs Rice Smith Hodge Wright MacDonald Marsden MacShane Richards Twigg Joyce Malhotra Balls Campbell Khan Pushpananthan Asato Malhotra Green Bartoletti Edobor
General Secretaries	Pease Sanders Galton Parker Monck Filson Chapman Rodgers Williams Ponsonby Hayter Martin Willman Crine Twigg Jacobs Katwala Harrop
Presidents	Webb Cripps G. D. H. Cole M. Cole Parker Hughes Archer