Francis Noel-Baker

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The Honourable
Francis Noel-Baker
MP
Member of Parliament for Swindon
In office
26 May 1955 – 7 March 1969[1]
Preceded byThomas Reid
Succeeded byChristopher Ward
Member of Parliament for Brentford and Chiswick
In office
5 July 1945 – 3 February 1950
Preceded bySir Harold Mitchell
Succeeded byPercy Lucas
Personal details
Born
Francis Edward Noel-Baker

(1920-01-07)7 January 1920
London, England
Died25 September 2009(2009-09-25) (aged 89)
Political partyLabour (until 1971)
SDP (1981–83)
Conservative (from 1984)
Spouses
Ann Saunders
​
​
(m. 1947; div. 1955)​
Barbara Sonander
​
​
(m. 1957; died 2004)​
Children6
Parent(s)Philip Noel-Baker
Irene Noel
EducationWestminster School
Alma materKing's College, Cambridge

Francis Edward Noel-Baker (7 January 1920 – 25 September 2009)

Philip Noel-Baker.[3]

Early life

Born in London,

Second World War and he never completed his degree.[7]

During the war he served in the

despatches while serving in the Middle East.[3]

Political career

Noel-Baker was first elected to the

House of Commons in the Labour landslide at the 1945 general election as Member of Parliament for Brentford and Chiswick. When elected, he was the youngest Labour MP. During his first term in the House he was noted for his interest in international affairs, and in 1948 he acted covertly for the British Government inside Francoist Spain, observing the political conditions there and liaising with underground resistance activists.[3] His report Spanish Summary, with a foreword written by Lady Megan Lloyd George, had a huge influence in shaming the British and other governments and worldwide organisations for allowing Francoist Spain to remain undefeated in Europe until the Spanish transition to democracy.[citation needed
]

Though Noel-Baker duly lost his seat in the 1950 general election, he was reelected as MP for Swindon by a small majority at the 1955 election and increased it beyond the 10,000 mark over the two following elections. Vociferous in parliament, diligent in his constituency, and gradually taking charge at the family estate on the large Aegean island of Euboea, he managed – for a time at least – to reconcile socialism in Britain with feudalism, albeit enlightened and benign, in Greece. Fluent in modern Greek, in 1956 he played a semi-official part in the Tory government's dealings with the Greek Cypriot leader Archbishop Makarios and the Enosis independence movement in Cyprus.

While he was an MP Noel-Baker advocated reforms to moderate the influence of outside interests in Parliament. In 1961 he published an article in Parliamentary Affairs warning that "the door, in fact, is wide open for a new form of political corruption, and there is an uneasy feeling in Parliament and outside that its extent could be much greater than the known or published facts reveal".[8]

In 1959 his father won a Nobel Peace Prize, and when Harold Wilson became Labour prime minister in 1964, both father and son were led to expect jobs in the new administration. However, the telephone calls never came. Noel-Baker was "bitterly disappointed at being overlooked."[4]

In April 1967, the democratic west was shocked by a military coup in Greece. The regime established by "the colonels" was widely condemned, but not by Noel-Baker. Although he had supported the previous democratic government,

Social Democratic Party (SDP), before abandoning it for the Conservative Party in 1984.[3]

Later years

In the years following his retirement from the House, he spent an increasing proportion of his time in Greece, becoming active in a range of Cypriot, environmental and charitable activities. As a lordly host with his wife and family at his beloved Achmetaga, he displayed generosity, humour, and loyalty to friends in all walks of life.

air-raid shelter, with signatures supplied by both the Greek and Turkish authorities, did the harassment cease.[3]

Before his death in 2009 Noel-Baker was one of the few surviving members of the 1945 Parliament, the others being Michael Foot and John Freeman. He married Ann Saunders in 1947 (dissolved 1955). In 1957 he married secondly Barbara (or Barbro) Sonander, who died of skin cancer in 2004. Four sons and a daughter from his two marriages survive him, and a son predeceased him.[3]

References

  1. ^ "Swindon MP resigns his seat", The Times, 8 March 1969, p. 1.
  2. ^ Emma Streatfield (28 September 2009). "Tributes paid to MP who shaped modern Swindon". Swindon Advertiser.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Francis Noel-Baker's obituary in The Daily Telegraph, accessed 8 October 2022
  4. ^
    TheGuardian.com
    . October 2009.
  5. ^ The Times Guides to the House of Commons, 1950.
  6. ^
    Who's Who & Who Was Who. Vol. 2022 (online ed.). A & C Black. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  7. ^ Tam Dalyell, 'Obituary: Francis Noel-Baker', The Independent, 30 September 2009. Retrieved 8 October 2022
  8. ^ Francis Noel-Baker, "'The Grey Zone': The Problem of Business Affiliations of Members of Parliament", Parliamentary Affairs, Volume 15 (1958), pp. 87–93.
  9. TheGuardian.com
    . October 2009.

Bibliography

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Harold Paton Mitchell
 Member of Parliament for Brentford and Chiswick
1945–1950 		Succeeded by
Percy Lucas
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Swindon
1955–1969 		Succeeded by
Christopher Ward
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