Sir Dingle Foot | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Solicitor General for England and Wales | |
| In office 18 October 1964 – 24 August 1967 | |
| Prime Minister | Harold Wilson |
| Preceded by | Sir Peter Rawlinson |
| Succeeded by | Sir Arthur Irvine |
| Member of Parliament forIpswich | |
| In office 24 October 1957 – 29 May 1970 | |
| Preceded by | Richard Stokes |
| Succeeded by | Ernle Money |
| Member of Parliament forDundee | |
| In office 27 October 1931 – 15 June 1945 Serving with Florence Horsbrugh | |
| Preceded by | Edwin Scrymgeour Michael Marcus |
| Succeeded by | Thomas Cook John Strachey |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1905-08-24)24 August 1905 Plymouth, England |
| Died | 18 June 1978(1978-06-18) (aged 72) |
| Political party | Labour (After 1956) |
| Other political affiliations | Liberal (Before 1956) |
| Spouse | Dorothy Mary Elliston |
| Parent(s) | Isaac Foot Eva Mackintosh |
| Relatives | The Lord Caradon (brother) The Lord Foot (brother) Michael Foot (brother) Paul Foot (nephew) Sarah Foot (niece) Oliver Foot (nephew) |
| Alma mater | Balliol College Oxford |
Sir Dingle Mackintosh Foot,QC (24 August 1905 – 18 June 1978) was a British lawyer,Liberal andLabourMember of Parliament, andSolicitor General for England and Wales in the first government ofHarold Wilson.
Born inPlymouth,Devon, Foot was the eldest son ofIsaac Foot, who was a solicitor and founder of the Plymouth law firm, Foot and Bowden.Isaac Foot was an active member of theLiberal Party and was Liberal Member of Parliament forBodmin inCornwall between 1922 and 1924 and again from 1929 to 1935, and also aLord Mayor of Plymouth.
Dingle Foot was educated atBembridge School, a boys'independent school on theIsle of Wight, and atBalliol College, Oxford, where he was President of theOxford Union in 1928. He had four brothers:Michael, a prominent figure in theLabour Party andLeader of the Opposition from 1980 to 1983;John (Lord Foot), aLiberal politician;Hugh (Lord Caradon), Governor ofCyprus and British Ambassador to theUnited Nations and Christopher, a solicitor who joined the family firm. He also had two sisters. His nephew, Hugh's son, was the campaigning journalistPaul Foot.
He married Dorothy Mary Elliston, who died in 1989. They had no children.[1]
Foot was admitted toGray's Inn on 19 November 1925 and called to the bar on 2 July 1930. He became a Master Bencher in 1952 and was appointedQueen's Counsel in 1954[1] He had been in active practice after having qualified a Barrister of England both in England and in several Commonwealth countries.[2] He was called to the Bar or admitted as a solicitor or practitioner inGhana (1948),Sri Lanka (1951),Northern Rhodesia (1956),Sierra Leone (1959),Supreme Court of India (as a Senior Advocate) (1960),Bahrain (1962) andMalaysia (1964). He also appeared regularly in the Courts ofKenya,Uganda,Tanganyika,Nyasaland andPakistan. In addition, he had been regularly engaged in theJudicial Committee of the Privy Council since 1945.[3][non-primary source needed]
From1931 to1945 Foot wasLiberal Member of Parliament (MP) forDundee. He was Parliamentary Secretary to theMinistry of Economic Warfare inWinston Churchill's wartime coalition, and a member of the British delegation toSan Francisco Conference in 1945. He visited Washington in June 1944, and secured an agreement with theUS State Department, the newWar Refugee Board and theForeign Economic Administration to supply 550 tons of aid parcels a month over a three-month period to 'unassimilated civilian internees' in war-zones in Europe.[4] At the 1945 election he lost his seat to Labour.
At the1950 general election Foot defended the formerly Liberal seat ofNorth Cornwall, following the defection of its memberTom Horabin toLabour in 1947, but he again lost, to theConservativeHarold Roper. He stood for the seat in 1951, losing again but by a narrower margin.[5] Foot left the Liberals and joined the Labour Party in 1956. He was Labour MP forIpswich froma 1957 by-election until1970. Following his appointment asSolicitor General in the first government ofHarold Wilson, he wasknighted and made aPrivy Counsellor in 1964. He served in this post for almost 3 years, from 18 October 1964 until 24 August 1967, until he was replaced byArthur Irvine following a major government reshuffle. In 1970 he was again defeated, this time by the Conservative candidate.
In the late 1940s and early 1950s Foot was often seen onBBC television as the moderator of the current affairs programmeIn the News. Often appearing with him wereMichael Foot and SirBob Boothby.His publications includedDespotism in Disguise (1937) andBritish Political Crises (1976).
Foot died on 18 June 1978 in a hotel inHong Kong, after choking on a sandwich.[2][5]
|
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forDundee 1931–1945 With:Florence Horsbrugh | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forIpswich 1957–1970 | Succeeded by |
| Legal offices | ||
| Preceded by | Solicitor General for England and Wales 1964–1967 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
