| Philip Noel-Baker, Baron Noel-Baker | |
|---|---|
Philip Noel-Baker |
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| Born | 1 November 1889 |
| Died | 8 October 1982 |
| Olympic medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Men's athletics | ||
| Competitor for United Kingdom | ||
| Silver | 1920 Antwerp | 1500 metres |
Philip John Noel-Baker, Baron Noel-Baker (1 November 1889 – 8 October 1982) was a British politician, diplomat, academic, an outstanding amateur athlete, and renowned campaigner for disarmament who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1959.[1]
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Philip John Baker was born in Hendon, to a Canadian-born Quaker father, Joseph Allen Baker, who moved to England to set up a manufacturing business and himself served on the London County Council and in the House of Commons. Educated at Bootham School and Ackworth School, York and then in the US at the Quaker-associated Haverford College in Pennsylvania, he attended King's College, Cambridge from 1910 to 1912. As well as being an excellent student, he became President of the Cambridge Union Society and the Cambridge University Athletic Club.
He was selected and ran for Britain at the Stockholm Olympic Games in 1912, and was team manager as well as a competitor for the British track team for the 1920 and 1924 Olympics. In 1920 at Antwerp he won a silver medal in the 1500 metres. The exploits of the British team at the 1924 Games in Paris were later made famous in the 1982 film Chariots of Fire, though Noel-Baker's part in such was not portrayed in that film.
During World War I, Noel-Baker organised and led the Friends' Ambulance Unit attached to the fighting front in France (1914–1915), and was then, as a conscientious objector from 1916, adjutant of the First British Ambulance Unit for Italy (1915–1918), for which he received military medals from France and Italy as well as his own country.
After the war, Noel-Baker was heavily involved in the formation of the League of Nations, serving as assistant to Lord Robert Cecil, then assistant to Sir Eric Drummond, the league's first secretary-general. He was also an academic early in his career, as the first Sir Ernest Cassel Professor of International Relations at the University of London from 1924 to 1929[2] and as a lecturer at Yale University from 1933 to 1934.
His political career with the Labour Party began in 1924 when he stood, unsuccessfully, for Parliament. He was elected as the member for Coventry in 1929, but lost his seat in 1931. In 1936 Noel-Baker won a by-election in Derby after the sitting Member of Parliament (MP) J. H. Thomas resigned; when that seat was divided in 1950, he transferred to Derby South and continued until 1970. In 1977, he was made a life peer as Baron Noel-Baker, of the City of Derby.
As well as a Parliamentary Secretary role during World War II under Winston Churchill, he served in a succession of junior ministries in the Attlee Labour Government. He was also prominent within Labour, serving as Chairman of the Labour Party in 1946. In the mid-1940s, Noel-Baker served on the British delegation to what became the United Nations, helping to draft its charter and other rules for operation as a British delegate.
In 1915 Philip Baker married Irene Noel, a field hospital nurse in East Grinstead subsequently adopting the hyphenated name Noel-Baker. Their only son, Francis Noel-Baker, also became a parliamentarian and served together with his father in the Commons. Philip Noel-Baker's mistress from 1936 to 1956 was Lady Megan Lloyd George, daughter of the former Liberal Party leader David Lloyd George, herself a Liberal and later Labour MP. Following Noel-Baker's death in Westminster at the age of 92, he was buried alongside his wife Irene in Heyshott in West Sussex.
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| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Archibald Boyd-Carpenter |
Member of Parliament for Coventry 1929–1931 |
Succeeded by Capt WF Strickland |
| Preceded by J. H. Thomas and William Allan Reid |
Member of Parliament for Derby 1936–1950 With: William Allan Reid to 1945 Clifford Wilcock from 1945 |
constituency divided |
| New constituency | Member of Parliament for Derby South 1950–1970 |
Succeeded by Walter Johnson |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Harold Laski |
Chair of the Labour Party 1946–1947 |
Succeeded by Manny Shinwell |
| Preceded by The Viscount Stansgate |
Secretary of State for Air 1946—1947 |
Succeeded by Arthur Henderson |
| Preceded by The Viscount Addison |
Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations 1947—1950 |
Succeeded by Patrick Gordon Walker |
| Preceded by Hugh Gaitskell |
Minister of Fuel and Power 1950—1951 |
Succeeded by Office abolished |
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