Benn, Anthony ___ 1925-n/a ___ British ___ politician

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
The son and grandson of MPs, Benn studied at Westminster School and New College, Oxford before marrying an American, Caroline Middleton DeCamp, in 1949 (with whom he was to have four children, one of whom is now an MP), and entering the House of Commons in 1950. In 1960, his father died, and Benn automatically inherited a peerage. Consequently, according to the law of the day, he was disbarred from sitting in the Commons, and subsequently - after a legal action - lost his seat. He then campaigned for a change in the law which resulted in the 1963 Peerage Act, and he became the first peer to renounce his title. He returned to Parliament after winning a by-election the same year. He was an elected member of the Labour Party's National Executive Committee from 1959 to 1994, and was Chairman of the Party in 1971-1972. Between 1964 and 1979, he served in the Wilson and Callaghan cabinets with various portfolios (technology, energy and industry). He was also closely associated with the trade union movement, and was a strong supporter of the miners strike in 1984-1985. In 1988, he stood for leadership of the party but was defeated. After 50 years in Parliament, Benn retired from the House of Commons in May 2001, so as to - he famously said - 'devote more time to politics'. He is also famous for his detailed and opinionated diaries, of which there are eight consecutive volumes covering the period 1942 to 2001.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio
The Diary Review - The hopes of the Left

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1963-2001 ___ political social historyeye people family

WEB TEXT LINKS
many viewable pages
about
some extracts

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
The Benn Archive

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
Out of the Wilderness; Diaries 1963-67
Office Without Power; Diaries 1968-72
Against the Tide; Diaries 1973-76
 

May 2005, September 2008, March 2013
Please email if you have any corrections, additions or comments, or if you've found the site useful. Thank you.

IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.