Clement-Jones family - Person Sheet
Clement-Jones family - Person Sheet
NameFrancis Edward NOEL-BAKER, 10492
Birth1920
Death2009
FatherPhilip John NOEL-BAKER Baron Noel Baker , 10490 (1889-1982)
MotherIrene NOEL , 10491 (1879-1956)
Notes for Francis Edward NOEL-BAKER
Francis Edward Noel-Baker (7 January 1920 – 25 September 2009)[1] was a British Labour Party politician. His father was Labour MP and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Philip Noel-Baker.[2]

He was educated at Westminster School and King's College, Cambridge and served with the Intelligence Corps in World War II.[3]

He was first elected to the House of Commons in the Labour landslide at the 1945 general election as Member of Parliament for Brentford and Chiswick. When elected, he was the youngest Labour MP. He lost his seat at the 1950 general election, but returned to Parliament at the 1955 election as MP for Swindon. He resigned his seat in March 1969, by taking the Chiltern Hundreds.

In 1948, Francis acted covertly for the British Government inside Franco's Fascist Spain. His report "Spanish Summary" with a forward written by Lady Megan Lloyd George M.P. had a huge influence in shaming the British and other governments and world-wide organisations for allowing the fascist state to remain undefeated in Europe until Franco's death.
While he was an MP Noel-Baker advocated reforms to moderate the influence of outside interests in Parliament. In 1961 he published an article in Parliamentary Affairs warning that "the door, in fact, is wide open for a new form of political corruption, and there is an uneasy feeling in Parliament and outside that its extent could be much greater than the known or published facts reveal".[4]

Before his death in 2009 Noel-Baker was one of the few surviving members of the 1945 Parliament, the others being Michael Foot and John Freeman. He married in 1947 (dissolved 1956), Ann Saunders. In 1957 he married secondly Barbara Sonander, who died of skin cancer in 2004. Four sons and a daughter from his two marriages survive him, and a son predeceased him.[2]
Last Modified 27 Aug 2012Created 2 Apr 2024 using Reunion for Macintosh