Lynskey tribunal

Sources

Report of the Lynskey Tribunal
The Lynskey Tribunal: The British Method of Dealing with Political Corruption Madeline Robinton, Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 68, No. 1 (Mar., 1953)
The Enemy Within: Hucksters, Racketeers, Deserters, and Civilians During the Second World War Donald Thomas, 2004
Political Corruption: Readings in Comparative Analysis Michael Johnston 2017
John Belcher ODNB
Sir George Lynskey ODNB
Hartley Shawcross ODNB
Shawcross obituary, The Guardian: "Shawcross's ruthless pursuit of venality, when he led for the government at the Lynskey tribunal into alleged corruption at the board of trade, began a slow process of alienation from Labour in 1948. His political colleagues thought him a little too keen to bring down politicians, such as the junior minister John Belcher. This embarrassed Labour; but softpedalling - never the Shawcross way - would have been worse."
shawcross obituary The Times: "Many would say that it was in 1948 and 1949, as counsel for the Lynskey tribunal, that Shawcross scored his greatest forensic triumph. This tribunal was set up to investigate allegations of impropriety made against certain ministers and public officials. Shawcross announced that he would seek the truth "ruthlessly and relentlessly", and this he did, although the process necessarily involved much probing of the actions and motives of political colleagues and personal friends."
Great Parliamentary Scandals Matthew Parris
John Gross (1964): "The Lynskey tribunal" in (eds) Sissons and French: The Age of Austerity 1945–1951
Lewis Baston (2000): Sleaze: The state of Britain Ch. 1
Guardian 26 January 1949 includes "Summary of findings"
Hansard 3 February 1949 Commons debate on tribunal report

Lead

The Lynskey tribunal was a British government inquiry, set up in October 1948 to investigate rumours of possible corruption in the Board of Trade. Under the chairmanship of a High Court judge, Sir George Lynskey, it sat in November and December 1948, hearing testimony from some sixty witnesses who included a number of government ministers and other high-ranking public servants. Much of the inquiry was centered on the relationship between the junior trade minister, John Belcher, and a self-styled business agent, Sidney Stanley, who claimed to have considerable influence in government circles which he was prepared to exercise on behalf of the business community. In its findings, published in January 1949, the tribunal found that Belcher, who admitted that he had accepted hospitality and small gifts from Stanley and from the distiller Sir Maurice Bloch, had been improperly influenced in his ministerial decision-making, although it dismissed allegations that he had received large sums of cash. A director of the Bank of England, George Gibson, was likewise found to have used his position to obtain personal advantage. All other ministers and officials were exonerated. Belcher resigned from his ministerial post and from parliament; Gibson was required to resign from his Bank directorship and from other public offices. Although the possibility of criminal proceedings was briefly considered, no further action was taken against any of the participants in the inquiry.

John Freeman

Sources

[1] John W. Young: "John Freeman 1969–1971", in The Washington Embassy: British Ambassadors to the United States, 1939–77, eds M. Hopkins, S. Kelly, J. Young. Palgrave Macmillan 2009
[2] N.H. Twitchell: The Politics of the Rope: The Campaign to Abolish Capital Punishment in Britain, 1955-1969, Arena Books, 2012. p.46 lists Freeman as a committee member of the NCACP
[3] Hugh Purcell: A Very Private Celebrity: The Nine Lives of John Freeman, Biteback Publishing, 2015. Chapters 1, 2, 3 and 4(part) Unpaginated.
[4] Peter Hennessy: Introduction in Hennessy and Shepherd: Reflections: Conversations with Politicians Hass Publishing, 2016. Unpaginated
[5]Observer obituary 21.12.14
[6] Independent obituary 21.12.14
[7] Hugh Purcell: "John Freeman: Face to face with an enigma" in New Statesman, 7 March 2013
[8]The Scotsman obituary 22.12.14
[9] Face to face with Waugh. Univ. of Leicester staff blogs
[10] ODNB (Gavin Hyman)

Sections

Lead
Life

Early life: Purcell 2015 Ch. 1; Ind obit; Purcell 2013; ODNB

Freeman was born on 19 February 1915 in North London, the elder of two sons of Horace Freeman, a barrister, and his wife Beatrice Mary, née Craddock. Soon after his birth the family moved to a large villa in the suburb of Brondesbury. The home was comfortable and prosperous, but lacked warmth and affection, so that the young Freeman developed a high degree of independence and self-sufficiency from a very early age. When he was 13 he won a scholarship to the prestigious Westminster School, which he attended as a weekly boarder. Here he was much influenced by the progressive attitudes of his headmaster, Harold Costley-White, whose initiatives brought to the school guest speakers such as Mahatma Gandhi, in London for the Round Table Conferences of 1930–1932, Professor Harold Laski from the London School of Economics, and the scientist Julian Huxley. Freeman heard these and others; he also witnessed, outside the school gates, a demonstration and near-riot mounted by the November 1932 hunger marchers, as they attempted to force their way into the nearby House of Commons. These experiences led to the development of an early social and political consciousness, and when he was 17 he joined the Labour Party.

Oxford and after

In October 1933 Freeman entered Brasenose College, Oxford, where he pursued numerous interests. Together with his future Labour Party colleague Woodrow Wyatt he helped to found the Experimental Theatre Group, as an alternative to the established Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS). He edited the student newspaper Cherwell, where he used the pen-name "Flavus" to publish a regular column entitled "Morals and Politics". These articles reflected a strong left-wing perspective; they included a sympathetic account of the arrival in London, on 31 October 1936, of the Jarrow marchers, led by the radical Labour MP Ellen Wilkinson, whom Freeman was later to acknowledge as a strong influence on his politics. In other articles he gave strong support to the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War which erupted in the summer of 1936, and attacked the activities of Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists when they held a rally in Oxford. Amid these activities he managed to lead a hectic social life, involving wine, women and fast cars. His academic work suffered accordingly, and he left Oxford in 1937 with a third-class degree.

For the two years following his departure from Oxford, Freeman worked for an advertising agency in London, where he lived on a houseboat and enjoyed to the full the social and literary pleasures of London life. On 18 August 1938 he married Elizabeth Allen Johnston, the daughter of a chartered accountant.

War service

On 27 June 1940, following the outbreak of war the previous year, Freeman enlisted with the Coldstream Guards, and completed his basic training at the Guards' training depot at Caterham. Persuaded that he should apply for a commission, he was posted to the Rifle Brigade as a second lieutenant in December 1940. After an extended period of training, the 1st Battalion of the Rifle Brigade departed for the Western Desert in Sepember 1941.

Politics
Journalism and TV
Diplomat
Media executive
Visiting professor
Retirement
Final years and death

Appraisal