Christopher Mayhew
James Archibald Christie | |
---|---|
Succeeded by | Peter Baker |
Member of Parliament for Woolwich East | |
In office 14 June 1951 – 20 September 1974 | |
Preceded by | Ernest Bevin |
Succeeded by | John Cartwright |
Personal details | |
Born | Christopher Paget Mayhew 12 June 1915 |
Died | 7 January 1997 | (aged 81)
Political party |
|
Spouse | Cicely Mayhew |
Christopher Paget Mayhew, Baron Mayhew (12 June 1915 – 7 January 1997)
Early life
Christopher Paget Mayhew was the son of Sir Basil Mayhew of Felthorpe Hall, Norwich.[2]
Mayhew attended Haileybury and Christ Church, Oxford, as an exhibitioner. In 1934 he holidayed in Moscow. While he was at Oxford, he became President of the Oxford Union. He was commissioned into the Intelligence Corps in 1940, rising to the rank of Major.
Political career
Mayhew was elected to Parliament for the constituency of South Norfolk in the general election of 1945.[3]
In 1945, Mayhew became Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign Office, where he served under Ernest Bevin.[citation needed] Mayhew lost his seat in 1950, but soon returned to Parliament after the death of Bevin, when he won the by-election in 1951 for Bevin's seat of Woolwich East.
During Labour's 13 years in opposition, from 1951 to 1964, Mayhew presented the Labour Party on television, both as a commentator on the BBC and as a presenter on Party Political Broadcasts. He introduced the first Labour broadcast, in 1951, in which he talked with Sir Hartley Shawcross. Mayhew became known as one of the fiercest opponents of unilateral nuclear disarmament in the Labour Party. He also served as Shadow War Secretary from 1960 to 1961 and as a spokesman on foreign affairs from 1961 to 1964.
When Labour took office in 1964, Mayhew was appointed as
Mayhew was a consistent advocate of
In 1973, Mayhew offered £5,000 to anyone who could produce evidence that Nasser had stated that he sought to "drive the Jews into the sea". Mayhew repeated the offer later in the House of Commons (Hansard, 18 October 1973) and broadened it to include any genocidal statement by any responsible Arab leader (The Guardian, 9 September 1974), while reserving for himself the right to be the arbiter of the authenticity of any purported statements as well as their meaning. Mayhew received several letters from claimants, each one producing one quotation or another from an Arab leader, all of which Mayhew deemed to be fabricated.
One claimant, Warren Bergson, took Mayhew to court. The case came before the High Court in February 1976. Bergson was unable to offer evidence of Nasser's alleged statement and acknowledged that, after thorough research, he had been unable to find any statement by a responsible Arab leader that could be described as genocidal. Bergson's lawyer admitted that the full version of one statement Bergson had relied on was not genocidal in intent. Bergson offered an apology to Mayhew.[citation needed]
Move to Liberal Party
Mayhew had been feeling increasingly uneasy with Labour policies under
On 6 July 1981 Mayhew became a life peer with the title Baron Mayhew, of Wimbledon in Greater London,[8] and became the Liberals' spokesman on defence in the House of Lords.
Other activities
Mayhew was also active as an advocate for the mentally ill and served as Chairman of MIND (
He wrote several books, including Publish It Not: The Middle East Cover-Up (co-written with Michael Adams, 1975) and his autobiography, Time To Explain (1987).
Panorama experiment
In 1955 Mayhew took part in an experiment that was intended to form a
Personal life
In 1949, he married Cicely Ludlam, whom he met when she was one of few women in the diplomatic service, and they had two sons and two daughters.[10]
Publications
- Dear Viewer (1953)
- Man Seeking God (1955)
- Commercial Television - What is to be done? (1959)
- Coexistence plus. A positive approach to world peace (1962)
- Britain’s role tomorrow (1967)
- Publish it not. The Middle East cover up (1975)
- The Disillusioned Voter’s Guide to Electoral Reform (1976)
- Time to Explain: An Autobiography (1997)
- A War of Words: A Cold War Witness (1998)
References
- ^ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "N" (part 2)
- ^ "King's Collections : Archive Catalogues : MAYHEW, Rt Hon Christopher Paget, Baron Mayhew of Wimbledon in Greater London (1915–1997) : 1–19: Papers". Kingscollections.org. Retrieved 23 July 2016.
- ISBN 0-900178-06-X.
- ^ ANAF foundation list of board members
- ^ "Obituary: Sir Harold Beeley". The Guardian. 31 July 2001. Archived from the original on 24 October 2022.
- ^ obituary with details of disagreement, The Daily Telegraph
- ^ JC 14 May 1982 p.6
- ^ "No. 48673". The London Gazette. 9 July 1981. p. 9091.
- ^ "Panorama: The Mescaline Experimetn". SOTCAA. February 2005. Retrieved 23 July 2016.
- ^ Michael Adams (23 October 2011). "Obituary: Lord Mayhew". The Independent. Retrieved 23 July 2016.
External links
- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Christopher Mayhew
- Amazon entry for Publish It Not: The Middle East Cover Up
- Newspaper clippings about Christopher Mayhew in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW
- Christopher Mayhew at IMDb