The Lord Noel-Baker | |
|---|---|
 Philip Noel-Baker in 1942 | |
| Minister of Fuel and Power | |
| In office 15 February 1950 – 31 October 1951 | |
| Preceded by | Hugh Gaitskell |
| Succeeded by | Office abolished |
| Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations | |
| In office 7 October 1947 – 28 February 1950 | |
| Preceded by | The Viscount Addison |
| Succeeded by | Patrick Gordon Walker |
| Member of Parliament forDerby South (Derby 1936–1950) | |
| In office 9 July 1936 – 29 May 1970 | |
| Preceded by | J. H. Thomas |
| Succeeded by | Walter Johnson |
| Member of Parliament forCoventry | |
| In office 30 May 1929 – 6 October 1931 | |
| Preceded by | Archibald Boyd-Carpenter |
| Succeeded by | William Strickland |
| Member of theHouse of Lords | |
Lord Temporal | |
| as alife peer 22 July 1977 – 8 October 1982 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Philip John Baker 1 November 1889 Brondesbury, London, England |
| Died | 8 October 1982(1982-10-08) (aged 92) Westminster, London, England |
| Political party | Labour |
| Spouse | |
| Children | Francis Noel-Baker |
| Alma mater | Haverford College King's College, Cambridge |
| Awards | Nobel Peace Prize |
| Sports career | |
| Sport | Athletics |
Event | middle-distance |
| Club | University of Cambridge AC Achilles Club |
Medal record | |
Philip John Noel-Baker, Baron Noel-Baker,PC (bornPhilip John Baker; 1 November 1889 – 8 October 1982), was a British politician, diplomat, academic, athlete, and renowned campaigner fordisarmament. He carried the British team flag and won a silver medal for the 1500m run at the1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, and received theNobel Peace Prize in 1959.[1]
Noel-Baker is the only person to have won an Olympic medal and received a Nobel Prize.[2] He was aLabourMember of Parliament (UK) for 36 years, serving from 1929 to 1931 and again from 1936 to 1970, serving in several ministerial offices and the cabinet. He was created alife peer in 1977.
Baker was born 1 November 1889 on inBrondesbury Park, London, England,[3] the sixth of seven children of Canadian-bornQuakerAllen Baker and the Scottish-born Elizabeth Balmer Moscrip. His father had moved to England in 1876 to establish a manufacturing business, and served as aProgressive member of theLondon County Council from 1895 to 1906, and as aLiberal member of theHouse of Commons forEast Finsbury from 1905 to 1918.
Baker was educated at Quakerindependent schools:Ackworth School in the West Riding of Yorkshire andBootham School in York. He studied in the United States at the Quaker-associatedHaverford College in Pennsylvania. Returning to England, he studied atKing's College, Cambridge, from 1908 to 1912, obtaining asecond in Part I of the historytripos and afirst in Part II economics. In addition to his academic endeavours, he was President of theCambridge Union Society in 1912 and President of the Cambridge University Athletic Club from 1910 to 1912.[3]
He was a competitor in the Olympic Games as a middle-distance runner, both before and after the First World War, representingGreat Britain in the800 metres and1500 metres at the1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm.[4] He reached the final of the 1500 metres, won by his fellow countrymanArnold Jackson. At the1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Baker was captain of the British track team and carried the team's flag. He won his first-round race in the 800 metres, but then concentrated on the 1500 metres, taking the silver medal behind his teammateAlbert Hill.[5] He was captain again at the1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, but did not compete.[3]
Baker's early career was as an academic. Following his graduation from the University of Cambridge in 1912, he was awarded the Whewell Scholarship in international law. In 1914, he was appointed as vice-principal ofRuskin College, Oxford, then anadult education establishment for working class men which is not part of theUniversity of Oxford. In 1915, he was elected afellow of King's College, Cambridge, hisalma mater.[3]
During theFirst World War, Baker organised and led theFriends' Ambulance Unit attached to thefighting front in France (1914–1915), and was then, as aconscientious objector from 1916, adjutant of the First British Ambulance Unit for Italy, in association with theBritish Red Cross (1915–1918), for which he received military medals from the UK, France and Italy.[5]
After World War I, Noel-Baker was closely involved in the formation of theLeague of Nations, serving as assistant toLord Robert Cecil, then assistant to SirEric Drummond, the league's first secretary-general. According to historianSusan Pedersen "Baker was far to the left of Drummond politically, but he had the kind of formation, connections, and intimate understanding of British officialdom’s rules of the game that made for easy collaboration between the two."[6] Noel-Baker did much of the League's early work on themandates system.[6]
He became the firstSir Ernest Cassel Professor of International Relations at theLondon School of Economics (which was then part of theUniversity of London) from 1924 to 1929,[7] and a lecturer atYale University from 1933 to 1934. His political career with theLabour Party began in 1924 when he stood, unsuccessfully, for Parliament in theConservativesafe seat ofBirmingham Handsworth. He was elected as the member forCoventry in 1929, and served asparliamentary private secretary to theForeign SecretaryArthur Henderson.[8]
Noel-Baker lost his seat in 1931, but remained Henderson's assistant while Henderson was president of theWorld Disarmament Conference in Geneva in 1932 to 1933. He stood for Parliament again in Coventry in 1935, unsuccessfully, but won theDerby by-election in July 1936 after the sittingDerby Member of ParliamentJ. H. Thomas resigned. When that constituency was split in 1950, he transferred toDerby South.
Noel-Baker became a member of the Labour Party'sNational Executive Committee in 1937. On 21 June 1938, Noel-Baker, as M.P. forDerby, in the run up toWorld War II, spoke at the House of Commons against aerial bombing of German cities based on moral grounds. "The only way to prevent atrocities from the air is to abolish air warfare and national air forces altogether."[9]
In the coalition government during theWorld War II he was a parliamentary secretary at theMinistry of War Transport from February 1942, and served asMinister of State for Foreign Affairs after Labour gained power following the 1945 general election, but had a poor relationship with the Foreign Secretary,Ernest Bevin. Noel-Baker moved to becomeSecretary of State for Air in October 1946, and then becameSecretary of State for Commonwealth Relations in 1947 and joined the cabinet.[10]
Noel-Baker was the minister responsible for organising the1948 Olympic Games in London. He moved to theMinistry of Fuel and Power in 1950. In the mid-1940s, Noel-Baker served on the British delegation to what became theUnited Nations, helping to draft its charter and other rules for operation as a British delegate. He served asChairman of the Labour Party in 1946–47, but lost his place on the National Executive Committee in 1948, his place being taken byMichael Foot.[11] An opponent of left-wingBevanite policies in the 1950s, and an advocate of multilateral nuclear disarmament, rather than a policy ofunilateral disarmament, he received theNobel Peace Prize in 1959. In 1979, withFenner Brockway, he co-founded the World Disarmament Campaign, serving as co-Chair until he died,[12][13] and was an active supporter of disarmament into the 1980s.
Noel-Baker stood down as the MP for Derby South at the1970 general election, at which he was succeeded byWalter Johnson. Hislife peerage was announced in the1977 Silver Jubilee and Birthday Honours[14] and, aged 87, he was raised to thepeerage 22 July 1977, asBaron Noel-Baker, of theCity of Derby,[15][16] having declined an appointment as aCompanion of Honour in the 1965 New Year Honours. He was president of theInternational Council of Sport Science and Physical Education from 1960 to 1976.[3] Noel-Baker was an active contributor toHouse of Lords debates into his nineties, speaking in debates on the ongoingFalklands War in the months preceding his death.
A memorial garden, the Philip Noel-Baker Peace Garden, exists withinElthorne Park, a small park in theLondon Borough of Islington.
Brian Harrison recorded an oral history interview with Noel-Baker in April 1977, as part of the Suffrage Interviews project, titledOral evidence on the suffragette and suffragist movements: the Brian Harrison interviews.[17] Noel-Baker discusses theLeague of Nations Union and thePeace Ballot of 1934–35, as well as his work with theUnited Nations Association and the work ofKathleen Courtney.
In June 1915, Philip John Baker married Irene Noel, a field hospital nurse inEast Grinstead, subsequently adopting the hyphenated nameNoel-Baker in 1921 by deed poll.[18] His wife was a friend ofVirginia Woolf. Their only son,Francis, also became a Labour MP and served together with his father in the Commons. Their marriage, however was not a success and Noel-Baker's mistress from 1936 wasMegan Lloyd George, daughter of the formerLiberal Party leaderDavid Lloyd George, herself a Liberal and later Labour MP. The relationship ended when Irene died in 1956.[3]
He died at home inWestminster on 8 October 1982.[3]
By Philip Noel-Baker with other authors
Primary and secondary sources
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forCoventry 1929–1931 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forDerby 1936–1950 With:William Allan Reid to 1945 Clifford Wilcock from 1945 | Constituency divided |
| New constituency | Member of Parliament forDerby South 1950–1970 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Chair of theLabour Party 1946–1947 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Secretary of State for Air 1946–1947 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations 1947–1950 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister of Fuel and Power 1950–1951 | Succeeded by Office abolished |
| Ministers |
| .svg) | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Secretaries of state | ||||||||||||
