David Ennals, Baron Ennals

David Hedley Ennals, Baron Ennals (born August 19, 1922 in Walsall , † June 17, 1995 in Belsize Park , London ) was a British Labor Party politician and human rights activist. From 1976 to 1979 he held the post of Minister for Social Affairs.

Life

Early life and military career

David Hedley Ennals was the second son of Arthur Ford Ennals and his wife Jessie Edith Taylor. He visited the location in his hometown Walsall Queen Mary's Grammar School and in the context of a one-year student exchange program in the US city Windsor located Loomis Institute . In 1939 he was a reporter for the Walsall Observer and served in the Royal Armored Corps of the British Army during World War II . In 1942 he was transferred to the 3rd Reconnaissance Corps. He provided services in North Africa, Italy and at the Rhine crossing. During the Allied landing in Normandy in June 1944, he did not return during a night patrol and had to live in captivity for months. With the rank of lieutenant, he retired from military service.

Political career

In the British general election of 1950 and 1951 , David Ennals ran unsuccessfully as a Liberal candidate for Richmond (Surrey). He later joined the Labor Party and served as Secretary of the Foreign Affairs Division of Labor Headquarters.

Ennals was then elected MP for Dover in the 1964 elections. Prime Minister Harold Wilson named Ennals as Secretary of State for the Army after the 1966 elections . In 1967 Ennals became State Secretary in the Interior Ministry under James Callaghan and the following year State Secretary for Social Affairs, but lost his government post and parliamentary seat after the Labor Party was defeated in the 1970 elections .

After the February 1974 elections , Ennals returned to the House of Commons as representative of Norwich North and was appointed Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. In 1976 he took over the post of minister for social affairs and carried it out until Labor lost power in the 1979 elections . During his tenure, he commissioned Sir Douglas Black with the creation of the Black Report - published only in 1980 - on the socially determined inequality of health opportunities . After losing his seat in parliament again in the 1983 elections , he was raised to life peer at the instigation of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as Baron Ennals, of Norwich in the County of Norfolk .

Other activities

Following his departure from the House of Commons in 1970, David Ennals served as campaign manager for the National Association for Mental Health (MIND), which he held until 1973. He became its chairman in 1984 and served as president from 1989 to 1995.

From 1952 to 1957 Ennals served as secretary of the United Nations Association and in 1984 became its chairman as well as the chairman of the Gandhi Foundation , which office he held until 1995.

Personal life

David Ennals married Eleanor Maud Caddick (* 1924/25) on June 10, 1950 and had three sons and a daughter with her, but divorced her in 1977. In the further course of 1977 he went into a second marriage with Katherine Gene Tranoy (* 1926/27).

David Ennals' younger brother Martin Ennals was a human rights activist and Secretary General of Amnesty International . His son Paul Ennals was the managing director of the English child welfare organization National Children's Bureau from 1998 to 2011 .

death

On June 17, 1995, David Ennals died of pancreatic cancer at his home in Belsize Park, London, at the age of 73 .

literature

• Tam Dalyell : Obituary: Lord Ennals . In: The Independent . June 19, 1995. Retrieved September 13, 2009.
• Lord Ennals; Ex-Cabinet Minister, 72 . In: The New York Times . June 19, 1995. Retrieved September 13, 2009.
• Howard Glennerster: Ennals, David Hedley, Baron Ennals (1922–1995) . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Oxford University Press . May 2008. doi : 10.1093 / ref: odnb / 59129 . Retrieved September 13, 2009. (Subscription required)

Web links

• David Ennals at Hansard (English)

Remarks

1. ↑ Who was Who , OUP 2007
2. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 35746, HMSO, London, October 13, 1942, p. 4483 ( PDF , English).
3. ↑ War diaries of the 3rd Reconnaissance Corps (TNA ref. WO166 / 10487)
4. ↑ War diaries of the 3rd Reconnaissance Corps (TNA ref. WO 171/418)
5. ^ Who's Who of 475 Liberal Candidates Fighting the 1950 General Election . Liberal Publications Dept. 1950.
6. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 38051, HMSO, London, August 19, 1947, p. 3938 ( PDF , English).
7. ↑ UK General Election results: October 1951 ( Memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
8. ↑ London Gazette . No. 49477, HMSO, London, September 14, 1983, p. 12063 ( PDF , accessed September 13, 2009, English).