John Freeman (British politician)

For other people named John Freeman, see John Freeman (disambiguation).

Major John Freeman MBE (born 19 February 1915) is a retired British politician, diplomat and broadcaster. He was the Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Watford from 1945 to 1955.

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 appointed MBE in 1943. After his return to the UK, he was selected as Labour candidate for Watford and was elected in the 1945 election victory.

Originally Freeman 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 Aneurin Bevan and Harold Wilson in 1951 over National Health Service charges. He stood down as an MP at the 1955 general election.

Freeman became a presenter of Panorama and was editor of the New Statesman from 1961 to 1965. He also presented the interview programme, Face to Face. While Harold Wilson was Prime Minister, Freeman was appointed the British High Commissioner in India (1965–1968) and Ambassador in Washington DC (1969–1971). Freeman was appointed to the Privy Council in 1966.

Freeman became 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 the last of those elected to Parliament in 1945 to survive.

He had been married four times:

1. Elizabeth Allen Johnston (1938–1948; dissolved)
2. Margaret Ista Mabel Kerr (1948–1957; widowed)
3. Catherine Dove (1962–1976; dissolved)
4. Judith Mitchell (since 1976)

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by John Freeman
• Entry in the Dictionary of Labour Biography

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by 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

Persondata
Name	Freeman, John
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	19 February 1915
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death