Bernard Floud

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Bernard Francis Castle Floud (22 March 1915 - 10 October 1967) was a British farmer, television company executive and politician.

[edit] Before Parliament

Floud went to Gresham's School in Holt, Norfolk, and Wadham College, Oxford University. He served in the Army from 1939 to 1942, then as a wartime civil servant in the Ministry of Information from 1942 to 1945. With the end of war, he moved to the Board of Trade before leaving the Civil Service in 1951. He then became a farmer in Essex.

In 1937 Floud had joined the Labour Party. He was a Labour councillor in Kelvedon Hatch Parish Council from 1952 to 1961 and Ongar Rural District Council from 1952 to 1955. From 1955, Floud was an executive with Granada Television. He also fought Chelmsford for the Labour Party at the 1955 general election and Hemel Hempstead at the 1959 general election. He was Chairman of the Independent Television Labour Relations Committee in 1963.

[edit] Parliament

Floud was elected to Parliament in the 1964 general election for Acton. He was re-elected in 1966, but committed suicide on 10 October 1967. Harold Wilson had mentioned that he was considering appointing Floud to the government, and MI5 was detailed to check his background. As Floud had been friends with many Communists while at Oxford, and the interrogation by Peter Wright was intense: Floud was depressed by the death of his wife, and took an overdose of barbiturates while gassing himself with Carbon monoxide.

[edit] References

• Who's Who of British Members of Parliament, Volume IV

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Philip Holland	MP for Acton 1964–1967	Succeeded by Kenneth Baker