Desmond Banks, Baron Banks of Kenton

Desmond Anderson Harvie Banks, Baron Banks of Kenton (23 October 1918 – 15 June 1997) was a British Liberal Party politician.

Banks was born at Ascot in Surrey. He was educated at prep school in Harrow and University College School in Hampstead. During the Second World War he served as an officer in the Royal Artillery. In 1948 he married Barbara Wells who in 1987 was awarded the OBE for services to the Women's Liberal Federation. Banks was a life insurance broker and pensions consultant.

He was Chairman of the Liberal Party Executive from 1961-63 and again in 1969-70 and President of the Liberal Party in 1968-69. In 1972, he was awarded the CBE for political service in the New Years Honours list [The Times, 1.1.72] He was created a life peer in 1974. [The Times, 6.12.74] In the House of Lords he was Liberal Deputy Chief Whip from 1977-83.

Banks had joined the Liberals while at school. He joined the staff at Liberal Party HQ in 1949 and was at one time editor of the party newspaper "Liberal News". He first stood as a parliamentary candidate in the 1950 election in Harrow East [The Times, 11.2.50] , then in St Ives in 1955 election [G Tregigda, "The Liberal Party in South West Britain since 1918", p.154] and Hertfordshire South West in the 1959 election [The Times, 7.10.59] . He was sometime speechwriter for Jo Grimond and a frequent contributor to "Liberal News" as well as author of many pamphlets and policy papers ["The Political Insight of Elliott Dodds", author information] .

In 1952, together with Peter Grafton who had been Liberal parliamentary candidate in Bromley in 1950 in opposition to Harold Macmillan, Banks co-founded the Radical Reform Group, a social liberal pressure group within the Liberal Party to prevent what many saw as a rightward drift by the party, and its potential capture by the economic liberals. The Group campaigned under the slogan ‘social reform without socialism.’

Banks was a strong pro-European, a founder member and one time chairman of the Liberal European Action Group and was President of the British Council of the European Movement from 1986-94.

References

Bibliography

*Vernon Bogdanor, "Liberal Party Politics", Oxford University Press, 1983
*Graham Lippiatt, entry on Banks in "Dictionary of Liberal Biography", Brack et al (eds.): Politico’s, 1998
*Gary Tregidga, "The Liberal Party in South West England since 1918", University of Exeter Press, 2000
*Donald Wade & Desmond Banks, "The Political Insight of Elliott Dodds", Liberal Pulications Dept., 1977
*Alan Watkins, "The Liberal Dilemma", MacGibbon & Key, 1966