{{Use British English, date=January 2013 The 1941 Committee was a group of British politicians, writers and other people of influence who got together in 1940.
/ref> Its members comprised liberals, and those further left, who were not generally involved with a political party. Its immediate purpose was to press for more efficient production in order to enhance the war effort. This swiftly developed into discussion of the methods and mores by which the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

would be governed after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. The members met at the home of

Edward Hulton Sir Edward George Stephen Hulton, 1st Baronet (3 March 1869 – 23 May 1925) was a British newspaper proprietor and thoroughbred racehorse owner. In 1921, he was awarded a baronetcy, of Downside in the parish of Leatherhead in Surrey, for p ...

, the publisher of ''

Picture Post ''Picture Post'' was a photojournalistic magazine published in the United Kingdom from 1938 to 1957. It is considered a pioneering example of photojournalism and was an immediate success, selling 1,700,000 copies a week after only two months. ...

''.

Members

The committee's members included: *

Richard Acland Sir Richard Thomas Dyke Acland, 15th Baronet (26 November 1906 – 24 November 1990) was one of the founding members of the British Common Wealth Party in 1942, having previously been a Liberal Member of Parliament (MP). He joined the Labour P ...

David Astor Francis David Langhorne Astor, CH (5 March 1912 – 7 December 2001) was an English newspaper publisher, editor of ''The Observer'' at the height of its circulation and influence, and member of the Astor family, "the landlords of New York". E ...

Thomas Balogh Thomas Balogh, Baron Balogh (2 November 190520 January 1985), born Balog Tamás, was a British economist and member of the House of Lords. The elder son of a wealthy Budapest Jewish family (his father was head of public transport, his mother ...

Vernon Bartlett Charles Vernon Oldfield Bartlett, CBE (30 April 1894 – 18 January 1983) was an English journalist, politician and author. He served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1938 to 1950: first as an Independent Progressive advocating a Popular Fro ...

* Violet Bonham Carter * Tom Driberg *

Michael Foot Michael Mackintosh Foot (23 July 19133 March 2010) was a British Labour Party politician who served as Labour Leader from 1980 to 1983. Foot began his career as a journalist on ''Tribune'' and the ''Evening Standard''. He co-wrote the 1940 p ...

* Raymond Gauntlett, SecretaryHansard 3 July 1941 vol 372 c1475
/ref> *

Victor Gollancz Sir Victor Gollancz (; 9 April 1893 – 8 February 1967) was a British publisher and humanitarian. Gollancz was known as a supporter of left-wing causes. His loyalties shifted between liberalism and communism, but he defined himself as a Chris ...

* Eva Hubback *

Julian Huxley Sir Julian Sorell Huxley (22 June 1887 – 14 February 1975) was an English evolutionary biologist, eugenicist, and internationalist. He was a proponent of natural selection, and a leading figure in the mid-twentieth century modern synthesis. ...

* Margaret Storm Jameson * Douglas Jay * David Low *

Kingsley Martin Basil Kingsley Martin (28 July 1897 – 16 February 1969) usually known as Kingsley Martin, was a British journalist who edited the left-leaning political magazine the ''New Statesman'' from 1930 to 1960. Early life He was the son of (Dav ...

Christopher Mayhew Christopher Paget Mayhew, Baron Mayhew (12 June 1915 – 7 January 1997) was a British politician who was a Labour Member of Parliament (MP) from 1945 to 1950 and from 1951 to 1974, when he left the Labour Party to join the Liberals. In 1981 ...

J. B. Priestley John Boynton Priestley (; 13 September 1894 – 14 August 1984) was an English novelist, playwright, screenwriter, broadcaster and social commentator. His Yorkshire background is reflected in much of his fiction, notably in ''The Good Compa ...

, chairman *

Ritchie Calder Peter Ritchie Calder, Baron Ritchie-Calder, (1906 – 1982) was a Scottish socialist writer, journalist and academic. Early life Peter Ritchie Calder was born on 1 July 1906 in Forfar, Angus, Scotland. Career Calder first worked as a journa ...

* Peter Thorneycroft *

Richard Titmuss Richard Morris Titmuss (1907–1973) was a pioneering British social researcher and teacher. He founded the academic discipline of social administration (now largely known in universities as social policy) and held the founding chair in the su ...

* H. G. Wells *

Kitty Wintringham Katharine Wise Wintringham (10 February 1908 – 1966) was an American political activist, best known for her activities in the United Kingdom. Born Kitty Bowler in Plymouth, Massachusetts, Wintringham studied at Bryn Mawr College. There, s ...

Tom Wintringham Thomas Henry Wintringham (15 May 1898 – 16 August 1949) was a British soldier, military historian, journalist, poet, Marxist, politician and author. He was a supporter of the Home Guard during the Second World War and was one of the founder ...

* Konni Zilliacus

The Nine-Point Plan

In May 1942 the committee published a ''Nine Point Plan'' on which it had agreed, calling for works councils and the publication of post-war plans for the provision of full and free education, employment and a civilized standard of living for everyone. This plan was the basis for the successful election campaign of Tom Driberg as an independent in the Maldon by-election. Shortly after, Priestley and most of the moderate members left, and under the guidance of

the committee merged with his organisation 'Forward March' to create the

Common Wealth Party The Common Wealth Party (CW) was a socialist political party in the United Kingdom with parliamentary representation from the middle of the Second World War until the year after its end. Thereafter it continued in being, essentially as a p ...

in July 1942. Committee members were responsible for the publication of two anonymous best-selling books: ''

Guilty Men ''Guilty Men'' is a short book published in Great Britain in July 1940 that attacked British public figures for their failure to re-arm and their appeasement of Nazi Germany in the 1930s. A classic denunciation of the former government policy, i ...

'' by Cato (Michael Foot, Frank Owen, and Peter Howard) and ''Your M.P.'' by Gracchus (Wintringham), both published by Gollancz, which exposed pro-

fascist Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and the ...

sympathies amongst Conservative politicians.

References

External links

Schoolnet: The 1941 Committee
Political advocacy groups in the United Kingdom United Kingdom in World War II 1940 establishments in the United Kingdom 1942 disestablishments in the United Kingdom