Wilfred Fienburgh

Wilfred Fienburgh MBE (4 November 1919 – 3 February 1958) was a Labour Party politician in the United Kingdom.

Fienburgh was born in Ilford, Essex. According to his obituary in "The Times" of February 4 1958 he worked as a manual labourer during the late 1930s, and because of his activities in the Second World War he was made an MBE in 1945.

At the 1945 general election he stood unsuccessfully in the Pembrokeshire constituency in Wales, losing by only 168 votes to the Liberal Party candidate Gwilym Lloyd George. In 1947 he joined the Labour Party Research Department, and was for four years the secretary of the party's policy committee, and was involved in drafting various articles of party policy during this period.

At the 1951 general election Fienburgh was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for the safe Labour seat of Islington North, in North London, although at the time of his death he was actually living in Hemel Hempstead. Available evidence from Hansard suggests that he was not a frequent contributor to debates in the House of Commons [http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/members/mr-wilfred-fienburgh] .

Percy Lucas, a fellow MP and also friend, mentioned in his memoir "Five Up" that Fienburgh also had a burgeoning media career with both Granada Television and "The Sunday Express".

Modern commentators have varying viewpoints on Fienburgh's character. He was described by Anthony Howard in "The Times" of November 7 2000 as being "rather louche", and Denis Healey in his 1989 autobiography "The Time of My Life" asserts that Fienburgh's "good looks and big brown eyes often led him astray" ^{(page 72).} Edward Pearce, writing in The Guardian described him as a "delightful and amusing Labour politician" [http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/edward_pearce/2007/02/short_if_not_sweet.html] .
Peter Hitchens in his book "The Abolition of Britain" described him as "one of the most talented men on the party's Left" ^{(page 259).}. Fienburgh was allegedly involved in an altercation with Jennie Lee, Baroness Lee of Asheridge during the 1952 Labour Party conference, according to Lee's biographer Patricia Hollis in "Jennie Lee: A Life" ^{(page 186).}.

Fienburgh wrote several books including non-fiction works such as "Steel Is Power - The Case for Nationalisation" and "25 Momentous Years: A 25th Anniversary in the History of the Daily Herald".

His most famous book was a novel called "No Love For Johnnie", a cynical portrayal of British politics in the late 1950s which was later adapted into a film starring Peter Finch as the title character. The novel seems to give vent to Fienburgh's deep-seated concerns about corruption in politics - he had previously claimed in 1955 that "the Labour party is the only party in Britain in which you can buy a seat", according to author Michael Rush in "The Selection of Parliamentary Candidates" (1969). One contemporary critic writing in the New Left Review of 1960 considered that "Fienburgh seems to have had no conception of what idealism means". Author Derek Jewell called it "a bitter study of political life" (1967). Geoffrey Wheatcroft in "The Observer" of February 4 2001 argues that 'No Love for Johnnie' is the archetype novel of a genre that he names 'the Labour Party novel of disillusionment'. An editorial in The New Statesman in 2000 described the novel as being highly prescient of the New Labour movement [http://www.newstatesman.com/200010020009] .

He represented his constituency until his death in a car crash in 1958, aged 38. The car he was driving collided with a lampost at Mill Hill, London. His funeral took place on February 7 at Golders Green Crematorium. He left £6177 in his will, according to The Times report of May 8th 1958. According to "The Library Association Record" (1961, page 205) Fienburgh's widow Joan was invited to open a new Islington public library in July 1960 as an official mark of respect for her late husband. MP Robert Mellish collected a sum of £400 from fellow MPs to give to Joan Fienburgh [http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1979/jul/11/members-salaries-and-pensions#S5CV0970P0-01634] .

At the resulting by-election, the seat was held for Labour by Gerry Reynolds, who himself died in office in 1969.

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