John Platts-Mills
John Faithful Fortescue Platts-Mills,
Early life and career
Born in
After graduating from
1935 to 1945
The proposed Hoare–Laval Pact permanently altered his political outlook[6] and in 1936 he joined the Labour Party. Mills was a friend of Olympic gold medallist and anti-fascist Lewis Clive, who died fighting against Nationalist forces in 1938 during the Spanish Civil War.[7] Platts-Mills was himself opposed to the Labour Party's policy of non-intervention.[1] In 1939 he took part as secretary in hearings set up by John Gollan of the British Youth Peace Assembly, a youth campaign having communist backing, with Arthur Comyns Carr as president, and Hyman Berger.[8][9]
On the outbreak of the
In politics
Platts-Mills was encouraged to become a Labour Member of Parliament (MP) by Frank Soskice, and in 1944 was added to a list of potential candidates. In 1945 V. K. Krishna Menon asked him to represent Indian interest in independence, and suggested Finsbury as a suitable seat.[11] At the 1945 general election he was elected as its MP. In the Commons, Platts-Mills emerged as one of a small number of MPs with pro-Soviet sympathies. He told Simon Hattenstone of The Guardian in 2001, not long before he died: "I was a good constituency chap."[12]
Nenni telegram
In 1948 Platts-Mills ceased to be a Labour MP, after an episode of factional strife, in which he was responsible for a telegram of support sent to the Italian socialist leader Pietro Nenni in April of that year.[13] He had helped organise a petition in support of Nenni and the Italian Socialist Party in its campaign for the 1948 Italian general election. The idea was up in the air at the time, and Maurice Orbach found about a dozen Labour MPs who supported it. Platts-Mills sent off the telegram, with Hyman Berger who was now his parliamentary clerical assistant, on the evening of 16 April, despite a warning earlier that day from Geoffrey Bing of potential trouble with the Labour whips.[14]
The telegram was supported by 36 further Labour MPs, rather than literally being signed by them. They made up the "Nenni telegram" group. It overlapped with the "
The position adopted by the Nenni supporters was contentious, because his party was in alliance with the
Many of the MPs retracted their support when asked to do so, and in the end almost all came to an accommodation with the Labour Party managers.[16] Platts-Mills was an exception.[2] He was already under investigation by the Party's National Executive Committee and was expelled from the Labour Party in April 1948 after he submitted a statement which was found unacceptable.[1]
Aftermath
The expulsion of Platts-Mills led to the formation in 1949 of the
Platts-Mills stood as an Independent Labour candidate in the new Shoreditch and Finsbury constituency in the 1950 general election but came third. He was opposed to NATO and claimed that the United States had too much power in Europe. He was readmitted to the Labour Party in 1969 after previous attempts in 1964 and 1966 were unsuccessful.[1]
Later legal career
He returned to his legal career and was made a
Platts-Mills was said to have encouraged Billy Strachan, a fellow communist activist and one of the pioneers of black civil rights in Britain, to study law.[22] Strachan then went onto be elected the President of Inner London Justices' Clerks' Society, and became an expert in laws regarding adoption, marriage, and drink-driving.
Personal life
In 1936, he married artist Janet Cree. He was the father of a forester, Tim Platts-Mills; a Lonrho director, Jonathan Platts-Mills; Thomas Platts-Mills; film director Barney Platts-Mills,[23] a wood sculptor, Benjamin Platts-Mills, and Mark Platts-Mills QC.
His wife died in 1992. Platts-Mills himself died on 26 October 2001.[1]
See also
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g h Jeger, Lena (27 October 2001). "John Platts-Mills". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f "John Platts-Mills". The Telegraph. 26 October 2001. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
- ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
- ^ Harlen, Jonathan (1987). The School at Ocean Bay. New Zealand: Cape Catley.
- ^ Nelson College Old Boys' Register, 1856–2006, 6th edition
- ^ Sedley, Stephen (11 November 1999). "In Judges' Lodgings". London Review of Books. 21 (22). Archived from the original on 8 August 2008.
- ^ Farman, Chris; Rose, Valery; Woolley, Liz (2015). No Other Way: Oxfordshire and the Spanish Civil War 1936-39. London: Oxford International Brigade Memorial Committee. pp. 63=64.
- ISBN 0-9539949-0-2.
- ^ "The Departments of the Communist Party of Great Britain: A Detailed Guide". British Online Archives.
- ^ "No. 34887". The London Gazette. 2 July 1940. p. 4022.
- ISBN 0-9539949-0-2.
- ^ Hattenstone, Simon (2 January 2001). "Soldier of fortune". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
- ISBN 978-1-137-45746-2.
- ISBN 0-9539949-0-2.
- ^ Brady, Robert Alexander (1950). Crisis in Britain. University of California Press. p. 35.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-137-45746-2.
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/76388. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ISBN 0-9539949-0-2.
- ISBN 0-9539949-0-2.
- ISBN 978-1-988533-14-8.
- ^ Morton, James (4 April 2019). "The trial that finally jailed the Krays". The Times. London. Retrieved 11 February 2021. (subscription required)
- ISSN 2055-7035. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
- ^ Gilbey, Ryan (15 October 2021). "Barney Platts-Mills obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 October 2021.
Further reading
- ISBN 978-19885-33179.
- John Platts-Mills QC: Muck, Silk and Socialism - Recollections of a Left-wing Queen's Counsel. Autobiography, published posthumously in 2002 by Paper Publishing, Oldwood Cottage, Wedmore, Somerset BS28 4XW. ISBN 0-9539949-0-2. xvi + 687 pages.