Humphry Berkeley

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Humphry John Berkeley (February 21, 1926 – November 14, 1994) was a British politician noted for his many changes of parties.

Berkeley's father Reginald had been Liberal MP for Nottingham Central from 1922 to 1924 and was a noted playwright. Humphry Berkeley attended Malvern College followed by Pembroke College, Cambridge and was President of both the Cambridge Union Society and Cambridge University Conservative Association in 1948.

Front cover of The Life and Death of Rochester Sneath

His studies were interrupted when he was sent down for two years as a result of a practical joke in which he impersonated 'H. Rochester Sneath', the headmaster of a rather odd public school, and wrote hoax letters to public figures. Berkeley knew Rab Butler who arranged a job for him at Conservative Central Office during this time; he also advised him to keep the hoax letters and their replies safely, and publish them a quarter of a century later (the 'Rochester Sneath letters' were duly published in 1974).

Berkeley established his own public relations company and became head of publicity and public relations for a group of civil engineering companies. As a strong supporter of European union, he was Director-General of the United Kingdom Council of the European Movement in 1956-1957. In the 1959 general election he was elected as a Conservative MP for Lancaster.

With a reputation for congeniality, Berkeley was respected across all parties. He was a strong internationalist who supported the work of the United Nations and served on the Parliamentary Assembly of the Western European Union and Council of Europe from 1963. On the socially liberal wing of his party, Berkeley was a member of the Howard League for Penal Reform and served as its hon. Treasurer from 1965. That year he also drew up the new rules for election of the Leader of the Conservative Party.

When he won second place in the ballot for Private Member's Bills in 1965, Berkeley decided to introduce a bill to legalise male homosexual relations along the lines of the Wolfenden report. His Bill was given a second reading by 164 to 107 on February 11, 1966, but fell when Parliament was dissolved soon after. Unexpectedly, Berkeley lost his seat in the 1966 general election, and ascribed his defeat to the unpopularity of his bill on homosexuality.

Out of Parliament, Berkeley took a job as Chairman of the United Nations Association. In this capacity he employed Jeffrey Archer, who was establishing a reputation for raising large amounts of money for charities, to organise the UNA's flag day collection. Despite barely increasing the previous year's total, Archer was promoted to organise a dinner at 10 Downing Street which raised over £200,000. However Berkeley became concerned and found that Archer was claiming on expenses for things he had not actually paid for. Knowing of Archer's ambition in the Conservative Party, Berkeley contacted Conservative Central Office to raise his concerns.

Unfortunately for Berkeley, his own relationship with the Conservative Party was strained at the time and no action was taken over Archer. In 1968 he had resigned from the party, largely in opposition to its stance on the Vietnam War. In 1970, he joined the Labour Party and stood unsuccessfully as a Labour candidate in 1974. As a moderate and pro-European he joined the SDP in 1981, and fought Southend East for them in 1987. In 1988 with the SDP splitting over whether to merge with the Liberals, he rejoined Labour.