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John Platts-Mills
John Faithful Fortescue Platts-Mills, (4 October 1906 – 26 October 2001) was a British barrister and left-wing politician. He was the Labour Party Member of Parliament for Finsbury from 1945 to 1948, when he was expelled from the party effectively for his pro-Soviet sympathies. He remained an MP until 1950, and then returned to his legal career. Early life and career He was born in Wellington, New Zealand in 1906 to John Mills, a prosperous businessman, and Daisy Platts, a doctor. Platts-Mills was educated at Ocean Bay School, Port Underwood, Marlborough, from 1917 to 1918, and at Nelson College from 1919 to 1924.''Nelson College Old Boys' Register, 1856–2006'', 6th edition He graduated with a first-class honours degree in law from Victoria University College in Wellington where he had been an excellent sportsman in track athletics, boxing and as a rower. In 1929, he won a Rhodes Scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford. After graduating from Oxford University, Platts-Mil ...
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Barrister
A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, jurisprudence, researching the law and giving legal opinions. Barristers are distinguished from solicitors and other types of lawyers (e.g. chartered legal executives) who have more direct access to clients, and may do transactional legal work. In some legal systems, including those of Anglo-Dutch law, South Africa, Stockholm Institute for Scandinavian Law#Scandinavian Law, Scandinavia, Law of Pakistan, Pakistan, Law of India, India, Law of Bangladesh, Bangladesh and the Crown Dependencies of Law of Jersey, Jersey, Guernsey#Politics, Guernsey and the Manx Law, Isle of Man, ''barrister'' is also regarded as an honorific. In a few jurisdictions barristers are usually forbidden from "conducting" litigation, and can only act on the instructions of ano ...
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Hoare–Laval Pact
The Hoare–Laval Pact was an initially secret pact made in December of 1935 between French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval and British Foreign Secretary Sir Samuel Hoare for ending the Second Italo-Ethiopian War. Italy wanted to incorporate the independent nation of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) into its Italian Empire and also avenge the 1896 Battle of Adwa, a humiliating defeat. The pact proposed to partition Abyssinia and thus partially achieve Italian dictator Benito Mussolini's goal of making Abyssinia an Italian colony. The proposal was met with outrage in Britain and France and never went into effect. Hoare and Laval were both sacked. Background In 1935 the Abyssinian Crisis and Second Italo-Ethiopian War began. In the United Kingdom many people and the official opposition supported League of Nations sanctions against Fascist Italy, as did the Dominions. The government hoped that strong sanctions against Italy might discourage Nazi Germany from similar actions, and won the Nov ...
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Bevin Boy
Bevin Boys were young British men conscripted to work in coal mines between December 1943 and March 1948, to increase the rate of coal production, which had declined through the early years of World War II. The programme was named after Ernest Bevin, the Labour Party politician who was Minister of Labour and National Service in the wartime coalition government. Chosen by lot as 10% of all male conscripts aged 18–25 (plus some volunteering as an alternative to military conscription) nearly 48,000 Bevin Boys performed vital and dangerous civil conscription service in coal mines. Although the last ballot took place in May 1945 (shortly before VE Day), the final conscripts were not released from service until March 1948. Few chose to remain working in the mining industry after demobilisation; most left for further education or for employment in other sectors. Bevin Boys were targets of abuse from the general public, who mistakenly believed them to be draft dodgers or co ...
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Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, during the Second World War) and again from 1951 to 1955. For some 62 of the years between 1900 and 1964, he was a Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), member of parliament (MP) and represented a total of five Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, constituencies over that time. Ideologically an adherent to economic liberalism and imperialism, he was for most of his career a member of the Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party, which he led from 1940 to 1955. He was a member of the Liberal Party (UK), Liberal Party from 1904 to 1924. Of mixed English and American parentage, Churchill was born in Oxfordshire into the wealthy, aristocratic Spencer family. He joined the British Army in 1895 and saw action in British R ...
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Stafford Cripps
Sir Richard Stafford Cripps (24 April 1889 – 21 April 1952) was a British Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician, barrister, and diplomat. A wealthy lawyer by background, Cripps first entered Parliament at a 1931 Bristol East by-election, by-election in January 1931, and was one of a handful of Labour frontbenchers to retain his seat at 1931 United Kingdom general election, the October general election that year. He became a leading spokesman for the left wing and for co-operation in a Popular Front (UK), Popular Front with Communists before 1939, in which year the Labour Party expelled him. During this time he became intimately involved with Krishna Menon and the India League. During World War II (1939–1945), Cripps served from May 1940 to January 1942 as List of ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Russia, Ambassador to the USSR, with major responsibility for building rapport with Hitler's greatest foe. Back in London in early 1942, he became a member of the War cabi ...
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Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet Union, it dissolved in 1991. During its existence, it was the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country by area, extending across Time in Russia, eleven time zones and sharing Geography of the Soviet Union#Borders and neighbors, borders with twelve countries, and the List of countries and dependencies by population, third-most populous country. An overall successor to the Russian Empire, it was nominally organized as a federal union of Republics of the Soviet Union, national republics, the largest and most populous of which was the Russian SFSR. In practice, Government of the Soviet Union, its government and Economy of the Soviet Union, economy were Soviet-type economic planning, highly centralized. As a one-party state go ...
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Pilot Officer
Pilot officer (Plt Off or P/O) is a junior officer rank used by some air forces, with origins from the Royal Air Force. The rank is used by air forces of many countries that have historical British influence. Pilot officer is the lowest ranking commissioned officer immediately below flying officer. It is usually equivalent to the rank of second lieutenant in other services. The equivalent rank in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) was "company assistant", later renamed to "assistant section officer". Canada The rank was used in the Royal Canadian Air Force until the 1968 unification of the Canadian Forces, when army-type rank titles were adopted. Canadian pilot officers then became second lieutenants. In official Canadian French usage, the rank title was . United Kingdom Origins In the Royal Flying Corps, officers were designated pilot officers at the end of pilot training. As they retained their commissions in their customary ranks (usually second lieutenant ...
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Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). Following the Allies of World War I, Allied victory over the Central Powers in 1918, the RAF emerged as the largest air force in the world at the time. Since its formation, the RAF has played History of the Royal Air Force, a significant role in Military history of the United Kingdom, British military history. In particular, during the Second World War, the RAF established Air supremacy, air superiority over Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain, and led the Allied strategic bombing effort. The RAF's mission is to support the objectives of the British Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), Ministry of Defence (MOD), which are to "provide the capabilities nee ...
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Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many nations mobilising all resources in pursuit of total war. Tanks in World War II, Tanks and Air warfare of World War II, aircraft played major roles, enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, first and only nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II is the List of wars by death toll, deadliest conflict in history, causing World War II casualties, the death of 70 to 85 million people, more than half of whom were civilians. Millions died in genocides, including the Holocaust, and by massacres, starvation, and disease. After the Allied victory, Allied-occupied Germany, Germany, Allied-occupied Austria, Austria, Occupation of Japan, Japan, a ...
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Arthur Comyns Carr
Sir Arthur Strettell Comyns Carr (19 September 1882 – 20 April 1965) was a British Liberal politician and lawyer. Family and education Comyns Carr was the son of J. Comyns Carr, a dramatist and art critic. His mother, Alice Comyns Carr (1850–1927), was a costume designer for the theatre. He was born in Marylebone and educated at Winchester College and Trinity College, Oxford. In 1907, he married Cicely Raikes Bromage, the daughter of a clergyman. They had three sons including Richard Strettell Comyns Carr, the second husband of the avant garde English novelist Barbara Comyns Carr. Roy Douglas, "Sir Arthur Comyns Carr", Brack et al. (eds.) ''Dictionary of Liberal Biography''; Politico’s 1998, pp. 84-85 Career In 1908, Comyns Carr was called to the Bar at Gray's Inn. He became a King's Counsel in 1924, a Bencher of the Inn in 1938, and, eventually, Treasurer in 1951. Comyns Carr's reputation as a barrister was confirmed in a libel action brought by Horatio Bottomley ag ...
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John Gollan
John Gollan (2 April 1911 – 5 September 1977) was a British political leader who was general secretary of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) from 1956 to 1975. Biography Gollan was born in Edinburgh, where he grew up and took his first job as a painter's apprentice. His first introduction to political activity was during the 1926 general strike when he helped distribute the papers of the strike committee. On International Workers' Day, 1 May, the following year, he joined the and its youth wing the Young Communist League (YCL). He became a signwriter, but his career was cut short in July 1931 when he was arrested for distributing anti-militarist leaflets. He had been organising soldiers to demand better rights and conditions, an activity for which he was sentenced to six months' imprisonment, which he served at HM Prison Edinburgh. After a popular campaign calling for his release, he was freed in January 1932 and began working for the party. Gollan became the ...
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The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Guardian Media Group, owned by the Scott Trust Limited. The trust was created in 1936 to "secure the financial and editorial independence of ''The Guardian'' in perpetuity and to safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values of ''The Guardian'' free from commercial or political interference". The trust was converted into a limited company in 2008, with a constitution written so as to maintain for ''The Guardian'' the same protections as were built into the structure of the Scott Trust by its creators. Profits are reinvested in its journalism rather than distributed to owners or shareholders. It is considered a newspaper of record in the UK. The editor-in-chief Katharine Viner succeeded Alan Rusbridger in 2015. S ...
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