Kenneth Younger

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Kenneth Younger" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (June 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Sir Kenneth Gilmour Younger KBE (15 December 1908 – 19 May 1976) was a British Labour politician and barrister who served in junior government posts during the Attlee government and was an opposition spokesman under Hugh Gaitskell but retired from Parliament early, disillusioned by party politics.

Family

Younger was the son of James Younger, 2nd Viscount Younger of Leckie and as such came from an upper-class background atypical of the Labour movement (he was also the brother of Conservative peer

Entry into politics

During

Following the

At the time of the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950, Bevin was ill and Younger played a central role in determining Britain's diplomatic reaction. Later that year he headed the British delegation to the UN General Assembly and introduced the British proposals for a negotiated ceasefire; he rejected Soviet proposals which contained a vague promise of 'free elections' in Korea but did not state how they were to be organised. Younger tried to assure the Chinese government that United Nations forces would not pursue the North Korean army further and attempt to invade China. In late October, he suggested the government of Czechoslovakia had been imposed on the country by the proximity of Soviet troops; this was angrily rejected by the delegate from that (former) country.

In opposition

Younger was rated a success by Attlee but was not of sufficient stature to take over when Bevin finally moved from the Foreign Office due to ill health in March 1951. He was one of the more prominent Labour speakers in the

However, Younger soon lost interest in high-profile party politics and in 1957 he was defeated for the Shadow Cabinet. He was more interested in individual campaigns, becoming a member of the Homosexual Law Reform Society. He stood down from Parliament in 1959 (ceding his seat to Anthony Crosland, a fellow moderate). He became a Director of the Royal Institute of International Affairs (better known as "Chatham House") and from 1960 to 1973 he was chairman of the Howard League for Penal Reform.

Having experience in government, Younger was recruited to chair the Advisory Council on the Penal System in 1966, and to chair the Committee of Inquiry on Privacy from 1970 to 1972, receiving the KBE as a reward. In 1976 he was made Chairman of the Data Protection Committee but died before the inquiry had concluded. He was also Chairman of the Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham Area Health Authority from 1974 to 1976.

References

• "In the Midst of Events: Diaries and Papers of Kenneth G. Younger" edited by Geoffrey Warner (Routledge, 2005)
  ISBN 0-7146-5622-4
  contains Younger's diaries during his time at the Foreign Office.

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Kenneth Younger
• Chronoscope interview with Kenneth Younger, broadcast 10/19/53, Retrieved February 12, 2020
• Younger Speaks On Korea at the UN (1950), Retrieved July 16, 2023