John Freeman (British politician)

Major John Horace Freeman MBE, PC (19 February 1915 – 20 December 2014) was a British politician, diplomat, broadcaster, and British Army officer. He was the Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Watford from 1945 to 1955.

Major The Right Honourable John Freeman MBE PC
British Ambassador to the United States
In office 1969–1971
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson Edward Heath
Preceded by	Sir Patrick Dean
Succeeded by	Rowland Baring
High Commissioner of the United Kingdom to India
In office 1965–1968
Preceded by	Sir Paul Gore-Booth
Succeeded by	Sir Morrice James
Member of Parliament for Watford
In office 5 July 1945 – 6 May 1955
Preceded by	William Helmore
Succeeded by	Frederick Farey-Jones
Personal details
Born	(1915-02-19)19 February 1915 London, England
Died	20 December 2014(2014-12-20) (aged 99)
Spouses	Elizabeth Allen Johnston ​ ​ (m. 1938; div. 1948)​ Margaret Ista Mabel Kerr ​ ​ (m. 1948; died 1957)​ Catherine Dove ​ ​ (m. 1962; div. 1976)​ Judith Mitchell ​ (m. 1976)​
Children	Six
Education	Westminster School
Alma mater	Brasenose College, Oxford
Occupation	Politician Diplomat Broadcaster
Military service
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Branch/service	British Army
Rank	Major
Unit	Coldstream Guards, Rifle Brigade, 7th Armoured Division
Battles/wars	World War II North African Campaign

Early life

Freeman was born in a house in the Regent's Park neighbourhood of London on 19 February 1915, the son of a barrister. The family later moved to Brondesbury. He joined the Labour Party whilst a student at Westminster School in the early 1930s, and later obtained his degree at Brasenose College, Oxford. He worked for a time at the advertising firm Ashley Courtenay.

Career

Military service

During World War II, Freeman saw active service in the Middle East, North Africa, Italy and North West Europe. He enlisted in the Coldstream Guards, was commissioned in the Rifle Brigade in 1940 and served in Britain's 7th Armoured Division (the "Desert Rats"). Bernard Montgomery called him "my best brigade major". He was appointed MBE in 1943.

Political career

After Freeman's return to Britain, he was selected as Labour candidate for Watford and was elected as a Member of Parliament in the 1945 election.

In September 1947, Freeman was appointed Vice-President of the Army Council, the supreme administering body of the British Army.

Freeman was originally on the Bevanite left-wing of the party, although also supported by Hugh Dalton, who liked to go 'talent-spotting' among young MPs. He rose quickly through the ministerial ranks, but resigned along with Aneurin Bevan and Harold Wilson in 1951 over National Health Service charges. He stood down as an MP at the 1955 general election.

Journalism and public career

Freeman became a presenter of Panorama and was editor of the New Statesman from 1961 to 1965. He also presented the BBC Television interview programme Face to Face.

In 1962, Freeman described Richard Nixon, then bidding to become Governor of California, as “a man of no principle whatsoever except a willingness to sacrifice everything in the cause of Dick Nixon”. Later in the pages of the New Statesman he portrayed Nixon as "a discredited and outmoded purveyor of the irrational and inactive" whose 1964 defeat would be a "victory for decency." In the event Nixon did not run for President in 1964, but instead supported Barry Goldwater, who lost easily.

While Harold Wilson was Prime Minister, Freeman was appointed the High Commissioner to India (1965–1968). He was appointed to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom in 1966, and then Ambassador to the United States (1969–1971). As Henry Kissinger describes in his memoirs, this created an embarrassing situation for Wilson when Nixon won the election seven months after Freeman's appointment as ambassador; allegedly, Wilson had been predicting a Democratic victory. Wilson refused to fire Freeman or remove him from the guest list for a dinner at Downing Street during Nixon's first official visit in 1969. Kissinger wrote that the issue was resolved when Nixon, who was sat opposite Freeman, made a toast at the end of the dinner:

"Some say there's a new Nixon. And they wonder if there's a new Freeman. I would like to think that that's all behind us. After all, he's the new diplomat and I'm the new statesman, trying to do our best for peace in the world."

Following this, the two became friends and Freeman "was the only Ambassador invited to the White House for social occasions during his first term". Kissinger said he "became one of my closest friends; that friendship has survived both our terms in office."

During Freeman's time in Washington, he also became a staunch fan of the Washington Redskins.

Freeman became Chairman of London Weekend Television Ltd in 1971, serving until his retirement in 1984. During this period, he wrote an article in 1981 which criticised what he saw as the heavy-handed, interventionist broadcasting policy of the British government, expressed in the ethos of the Independent Broadcasting Authority, and expressed views that would soon come to be closely associated with Margaret Thatcher and the deregulatory, laissez-faire new school of Conservative Party politics. He was director of several other companies in this period and President of ITN (1976–1981).

From 1985 to 1990, Freeman was Visiting Professor of International Relations at the University of California, Davis. Freeman was elected an honorary fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1968.

Later life

In later life Freeman commentated on bowls for Granada Television.

Freeman retired to Barnes, London, removing himself to a military care home in south London in 2012.

When Morgan Morgan-Giles died on 4 May 2013, Freeman became the oldest surviving former MP. He was the last survivor of those elected to Parliament in 1945. Following the death of Tony Benn on 14 March 2014, he was also the last surviving member of the 1950 parliament and the last surviving MP under King George VI.

Freeman died on 20 December 2014, aged 99.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by John Freeman
• Entry in the Dictionary of Labour Biography
• John Freeman: Face to face with an enigma, The New Statesman, 7 March 2013