John Freeman (politician)
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Major John Freeman, MBE (born February 19, 1915 ) is a former British Labour Party politician, broadcaster and journalist, television executive, bowls commentator and diplomat.
[edit] Life and career
He was educated at Westminster School and Brasenose College, Oxford, (where he was elected an honorary fellow in 1968) and he joined the Labour Party in 1933. During World War II, Freeman saw active service in the Middle East, North Africa, Italy and North West Europe and was commissioned in the Rifle Brigade in 1940. He was awarded the MBE in 1943. Upon his return, he was selected as Labour candidate for Watford and was elected in the 1945 election victory.
He was on the Bevanite left-wing of the Party although also supported by Hugh Dalton who liked to go 'talent-spotting' among young MPs. He rose quickly through the ministerial ranks, but resigned along with Bevan and Harold Wilson in 1951 over National Health Service charges. He decided to stand down as an MP in the 1955 general election.
Freeman established himself as a political journalist and was editor of the New Statesman from 1961 to 1965. He also presented the political interview programme, Face to Face (where on one famous occasion he reduced TV personality Gilbert Harding to tears) and Panorama. When Harold Wilson became Prime Minister, he appointed Freeman to be British High Commissioner in India (1965-1968) then British Ambassador in Washington D.C. (1969-1971). Freeman joined the Privy Council in 1966.
Freeman was appointed Chairman of London Weekend Television Ltd in 1971, serving until his retirement in 1984. During this period, he wrote an article in 1981 which criticised what he saw as the heavy-handed, interventionist broadcasting policy of the British government expressed in the ethos of the Independent Broadcasting Authority, and expressed views which would soon come to be closely associated with Margaret Thatcher and the deregulatory, laissez-faire new school of Conservative Party politics. He was director of several other companies in this period and President of ITN (1976 - 1981).
Following his retirement he commentated on bowls for Granada Television. From 1985 to 1990 he was Visiting Professor of International Relations at the University of California, Davis. He is one of the last of those elected to Parliament in 1945 to survive.
He had been married four times:
- Elizabeth Allen Johnston (1938 - 1948; dissolved)
- Margaret Ista Mabel Kerr (1948 - 1957; widowed)
- Catherine Dove (1962 - 1976; dissolved)
- Judith Mitchell (since 1976)
[edit] External links
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Air Commodore William Helmore |
Member of Parliament for Watford 1945–1955 |
Succeeded by Frederick Farey-Jones |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Frederick Bellenger |
Financial Secretary to the War Office 1946–1947 |
Succeeded by office merged into Under-Secretary of State for War |
| Preceded by The Lord Pakenham |
Under-Secretary of State for War 1947–1947 |
Succeeded by Michael Stewart |
| Media offices | ||
| Preceded by Kingsley Martin |
Editor of the New Statesman 1961–1965 |
Succeeded by Paul Johnson |
| Diplomatic posts | ||
| Preceded by Sir Paul Gore-Booth |
High Commissioner to India 1965–1968 |
Succeeded by Sir Morrice James |
| Preceded by Sir Patrick Dean |
British Ambassador to the United States 1969–1971 |
Succeeded by George Baring, 3rd Earl of Cromer |
