William Stephen Richard King-Hall, Baron King-Hall of Headley (21 January 1893 – 2 June 1966) was a British naval officer, writer, politician and playwright who served as the member of parliament for

Ormskirk Ormskirk is a market town in the West Lancashire district of Lancashire, England. It is located north of Liverpool, northwest of St Helens, Merseyside, St Helens, southeast of Southport and southwest of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. Ormski ...

from 1939 to 1945.

Early life and career

The son of Admiral Sir George Fowler King-Hall and Olga Felicia Ker; theirs was an artistic naval family, King-Hall's sisters Magdalen and Lou also being writers. He married Kathleen Amelia Spencer (died 14 August 1950), daughter of Francis Spencer, on 15 April 1919 and they had three children, Ann, Frances Susan and Jane. He was educated at

Lausanne Lausanne ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, city of the Swiss French-speaking Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud, in Switzerland. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway bet ...

in Switzerland and at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth. He fought in the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

between 1914 and 1918, with the Grand Fleet, serving on and 11th Submarine Flotilla. He gained the rank of commander in the service of the Royal Navy in 1928, before resigning in 1929. He wrote several plays between 1924 and 1940, including ''Posterity'' accepted by Leonard Woolf for the Hogarth Essays. He joined the Royal Institute of International Affairs in 1929, having previously been awarded their gold medal for his 1920 thesis on submarine warfare.

Member of Parliament

He entered the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

in 1939 as Member of Parliament (MP) for

unopposed, standing as the National Labour candidate. He later changed his affiliation and continued to stand as an Independent, subsequently losing the seat to future Prime Minister

Harold Wilson James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx (11 March 1916 – 23 May 1995) was a British statesman and Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, from 1964 to 1970 and again from 197 ...

in the 1945 general election. During his term, he served in the Ministry of Aircraft Production under Max Aitken as Director of the Factory Defence Section. In 1944 he founded and chaired the Hansard Society to promote

parliamentary In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

democracy. He presented a programme for children on current affairs on both BBC radio and television.

Life after Parliament and death

He was invested as a

Knight Bachelor The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised Order of chivalry, orders of chivalry; it is a part of the Orders, decorations, and medals ...

on 6 July 1954 and was created a

Life Peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. With the exception of the D ...

as Baron King-Hall of Headley on 15 January 1966. He lived at Hartfield House, Headley until his death in

Westminster Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...

on 2 June 1966.

Bibliography

Political and Historical

* ''A Naval Lieutenant, 1914–1918'' as "Etienne"

Who Was Who ''Who's Who'' is a reference work. It has been published annually in the form of a hardback book since 1849, and has been published online since 1999. It has also been published on CD-ROM. It lists, and gives information on, people from around ...

, A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007, accessed 17 November 2012
King-Hall
* ''Diary of a U-Boat-Commander'' 1918, as "Etienne", 1918 * ''Western Civilisation and the Far East'', 1924 * ''Imperial Defence'' * ''The China of To-day'' * ''The War at Sea'', 1914–1918 * ''Submarines in the Future of Naval Warfare'', 1920. Thesis. * ''Our Own Times'', 2 vols, 1935 * ''A North Sea Diary : 1914-18'', Newnes, London, 1936. A "new edition" (minor edits and postscripts) of his earlier ''A Naval Lieutenant'' under pseudonym "Etienne". * ''London Newsletter'' (a.k.a. ''K-H Weekly News Letter Service'', National News Letter), 1936. * ''Total Victory'', 1941 * ''Britain's Third Chance'', 1943 * ''My Naval Life'', Faber and Faber, London, 1952, * ''History in Hansard'' (with Ann Dewar), 1952 * ''The Communist Conspiracy'', 1953 * ''Defence in the Nuclear Age''. Gollancz, London, 1958; Nyack, N.Y.: Fellowship, 1959. * ''Common Sense in Defence'', 1960 * ''Men of Destiny'', 1960 * ''Our Times'', 1900–1960, 1961 * ''Power Politics in the Nuclear age''. Gollancz, London, 1962. In ''Defence in the Nuclear Age'' he advocated a British policy of unilateral nuclear disarmament and national defence involving some reliance on conventional military force. This was to be supplemented by "a defence system of non-violence against violence" - what is often called "defence by

civil resistance Civil resistance is a form of political action that relies on the use of nonviolent resistance by ordinary people to challenge a particular power, force, policy or regime. Civil resistance operates through appeals to the adversary, pressure and co ...

" or " social defence". In ''Men of Destiny'' he criticised all sides for the creation of the Cold War and further promoted his aim of nuclear disarmament. There have been several accounts and appraisals of his work advocating unilateral nuclear disarmament and defence by civil resistance.

Children

* ''Letters to Hilary'', 1928 * ''Hilary Growing Up'', 1929, E. Benn, London. * ''The crowning of the King and Queen'', 1937 "Hilary Growing Up" was described by the author as building ''"upon the foundations laid down in its predecessor Letters to Hilary. This book is for children from twelve to ninety... a series of essays, or talks... on sociology."''

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

''Hilary Growing Up''
/ref>

Novels

* ''Moment of No Return'',

Ballantine Books Ballantine Books is a major American book publisher that is a subsidiary of German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. Ballantine was founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. Ballantine was acquired by Random House in ...

(No. F543), New York, 1961. A Cold - War novel about tensions between the Soviet Bloc and the West.

Plays

* ''Posterity'', 1927 * '' The Middle Watch'', 1929 * '' The Midshipmaid'', 1931 * '' Admirals All'', 1934 * ''Tropical Trouble'', 1936 * ''The Middle Watch'', 1940 * '' Off the Record'', 1947 * ''Girls at Sea'', 1958

Radio

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Children's Hour ''Children's Hour'', initially ''The Children's Hour'', was the BBC's principal recreational service for children (as distinct from "Broadcasts to Schools") which began during the period when radio was the only medium of broadcasting. ''Childre ...

References

* * * *

External links

* * * * *
''A North Sea Diary 1914-1918''
Account of his experience on board the ''Southampton'' *
The papers of Baron King-Hall of Headley
at Churchill Archives Centre {{DEFAULTSORT:King-Hall, Stephen 1893 births 1966 deaths 20th-century British dramatists and playwrights British anti–nuclear weapons activists British male journalists Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament activists Knights Bachelor Life peers Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies National Labour (UK) politicians Royal Navy officers of World War I UK MPs 1935–1945 UK MPs who were granted peerages Life peers created by Elizabeth II Writers from London