John Frederick Wolfenden, Baron Wolfenden, CBE (1906, Halifax, West Yorkshire – 1985) was a British educationalist probably best remembered for chairing the Wolfenden report recommending the decriminalisation of homosexuality, which was published in 1957. John Wolfenden was the father of Jeremy Wolfenden, Foreign Correspondent for the Daily Telegraph and British spy.
He was the son of an education official in Wakefield, Yorkshire, where he attended Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Wakefield. He won a scholarship to Oxford and became a don at Magdalen College, Oxford in 1929. John Wolfenden was the headmaster of Uppingham (1934–1944) and Shrewsbury (1944) and chairman of various government committees which mostly focused on education and problems with youth. He was chairman of the committee that produced the Wolfenden report.
He become Vice-Chancellor of University of Reading in 1950 and during this period wrote two books, Family Affair and The Steele Age, both part of the series of 'Take Home Books'.
Wolfenden was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1942, and was knighted in 1956.
In 1969, he was appointed as director of the British Museum, a post that he left in 1973. In 1974, he was made a life peer as Baron Wolfenden, of Westcott in Surrey.
In his essay, The Gap — The Bridge, Wolfenden discusses the problems with institutional dichotomy.
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