Geoffrey de Freitas
Encyclopedia
Sir Geoffrey Stanley de Freitas (7 April 1913–10 August 1982) was a British politician and diplomat. For many years a Labour
Member of Parliament, he also served as British High Commissioner
in Accra
and Nairobi
, and later as President of the Council of Europe
.
in Geoffrey's youth, and later of British Guiana
,having held a variety of legal and administrative posts in the British West Indies
.
After boarding school at Haileybury
in England, de Freitas went to his father's old college: Clare College, Cambridge
, where he was a successful student and athlete, and was president of the Cambridge Union for a term.
Two years at Yale
followed, with a Mellon Fellowship
in international law, and in 1936 on the voyage home he met his future wife, Helen Graham Bell, a Bryn Mawr
graduate and daughter of Laird Bell
, a prominent Chicago
lawyer and Democrat
.
In 1938 they married, and lived in London where de Freitas was pursuing a career as a barrister
, gaining political experience as a Labour councillor in Shoreditch
, and co-leading a boys' club in Hoxton
. During the war he became a Squadron Leader
, but returned to politics in 1945, the family living at Loughton
and then Cambridge
.
in the 1945 election, and was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary
to Clement Attlee
. As Under-Secretary for Air he went to the United Nations
Assembly at Lake Success in 1947. Some years later he would co-author a booklet on the subject of an Atlantic Assembly, and he had a long-standing connection with the North Atlantic Assembly
.
In the 1950 general election de Freitas became Member of Parliament for Lincoln
. He was appointed Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department
and held a succession of front bench posts throughout the decade. For a while Betty Boothroyd
was assistant to de Freitas and she remained a friend of the family. Geoffrey and Helen now had three sons and a daughter.
In 1961 de Freitas was nominated to be British High Commissioner to Ghana
, and was knighted in October of that year. He resigned his seat in the Commons on 20 December 1961, taking the sinecure
of Steward and bailif of the Manor of Northstead
. He was the first Labour appointment to an important role in one of the newly-independent former British colonies. In 1957 he had chaired a Hansard Society
conference on parliamentary government in West Africa. After Accra, he was briefly in Nairobi
, as British representative supporting an attempt to build a Federation of East Africa which would include Uganda
, Tanganyika
and Kenya
.
In 1964 he was invited to stand for election to represent Kettering
, then a safe Labour seat, and returned to England. There was no front bench role for him with Harold Wilson
as party leader, but de Freitas led the Labour delegation to the Council of Europe
in 1965 and was President of the Council from 1966-1969.
In 1971 his reluctance to be nominated for election as Speaker of the House of Commons
led to a reappraisal of the system. From 1975-1979 Sir Geoffrey was a delegate to the European Parliament
.
He retired from politics in 1979 and died three years later, in Cambridge
, aged 69.
The autobiography he was writing with his wife, The slighter side of a long public life, was published in 1985.
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
Member of Parliament, he also served as British High Commissioner
High Commissioner
High Commissioner is the title of various high-ranking, special executive positions held by a commission of appointment.The English term is also used to render various equivalent titles in other languages.-Bilateral diplomacy:...
in Accra
Accra
Accra is the capital and largest city of Ghana, with an urban population of 1,658,937 according to the 2000 census. Accra is also the capital of the Greater Accra Region and of the Accra Metropolitan District, with which it is coterminous...
and Nairobi
Nairobi
Nairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi County. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters". However, it is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun" and is...
, and later as President of the Council of Europe
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe is an international organisation promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation...
.
Family and early career
Geoffrey de Freitas was the son of Sir Anthony and Lady (Edith) de Freitas.Sir Anthony was Chief Justice of St. VincentSaint Vincent and the Grenadines
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is an island country in the Lesser Antilles chain, namely in the southern portion of the Windward Islands, which lie at the southern end of the eastern border of the Caribbean Sea where the latter meets the Atlantic Ocean....
in Geoffrey's youth, and later of British Guiana
British Guiana
British Guiana was the name of the British colony on the northern coast of South America, now the independent nation of Guyana.The area was originally settled by the Dutch at the start of the 17th century as the colonies of Essequibo, Demerara, and Berbice...
,having held a variety of legal and administrative posts in the British West Indies
British West Indies
The British West Indies was a term used to describe the islands in and around the Caribbean that were part of the British Empire The term was sometimes used to include British Honduras and British Guiana, even though these territories are not geographically part of the Caribbean...
.
After boarding school at Haileybury
Haileybury and Imperial Service College
Haileybury and Imperial Service College, , is a prestigious British independent school founded in 1862. The school is located at Hertford Heath, near Hertford, from central London, on of parkland occupied until 1858 by the East India College...
in England, de Freitas went to his father's old college: Clare College, Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
, where he was a successful student and athlete, and was president of the Cambridge Union for a term.
Two years at Yale
YALE
RapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...
followed, with a Mellon Fellowship
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of New York City and Princeton, New Jersey in the United States, is a private foundation with five core areas of interest, endowed with wealth accumulated by the late Andrew W. Mellon of the Mellon family of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is the product of the 1969...
in international law, and in 1936 on the voyage home he met his future wife, Helen Graham Bell, a Bryn Mawr
Bryn Mawr College
Bryn Mawr College is a women's liberal arts college located in Bryn Mawr, a community in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania, ten miles west of Philadelphia. The name "Bryn Mawr" means "big hill" in Welsh....
graduate and daughter of Laird Bell
Laird Bell
Laird Bell was a distinguished attorney and Democrat who founded a leading Chicago law firm and endowed several charitable institutions. Bell was an extraordinarily active contributor in a variety of social and not-for-profit causes...
, a prominent Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
lawyer and Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
.
In 1938 they married, and lived in London where de Freitas was pursuing a career as a barrister
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
, gaining political experience as a Labour councillor in Shoreditch
Shoreditch
Shoreditch is an area of London within the London Borough of Hackney in England. It is a built-up part of the inner city immediately to the north of the City of London, located east-northeast of Charing Cross.-Etymology:...
, and co-leading a boys' club in Hoxton
Hoxton
Hoxton is an area in the London Borough of Hackney, immediately north of the financial district of the City of London. The area of Hoxton is bordered by Regent's Canal on the north side, Wharf Road and City Road on the west, Old Street on the south, and Kingsland Road on the east.Hoxton is also a...
. During the war he became a Squadron Leader
Squadron Leader
Squadron Leader is a commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence. It is also sometimes used as the English translation of an equivalent rank in countries which have a non-English air force-specific rank structure. In these...
, but returned to politics in 1945, the family living at Loughton
Loughton
Loughton is a town and civil parish in the Epping Forest district of Essex. It is located between 11 and 13 miles north east of Charing Cross in London, south of the M25 and west of the M11 motorway and has boundaries with Chingford, Waltham Abbey, Theydon Bois, Chigwell and Buckhurst Hill...
and then Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
.
Parliament and abroad
He beat the sitting Conservative MP for Nottingham CentralNottingham Central (UK Parliament constituency)
Nottingham Central was a borough constituency in the city of Nottingham. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom....
in the 1945 election, and was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary
Parliamentary Private Secretary
A Parliamentary Private Secretary is a role given to a United Kingdom Member of Parliament by a senior minister in government or shadow minister to act as their contact for the House of Commons; this role is junior to that of Parliamentary Under-Secretary, which is a ministerial post, salaried by...
to Clement Attlee
Clement Attlee
Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, PC, FRS was a British Labour politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951, and as the Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955...
. As Under-Secretary for Air he went to the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
Assembly at Lake Success in 1947. Some years later he would co-author a booklet on the subject of an Atlantic Assembly, and he had a long-standing connection with the North Atlantic Assembly
NATO Parliamentary Assembly
Founded in 1955, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly serves as the consultative interparliamentary organisation for the North Atlantic Alliance. Its current President is Karl A...
.
In the 1950 general election de Freitas became Member of Parliament for Lincoln
Lincoln (UK Parliament constituency)
Lincoln is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....
. He was appointed Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department
Home Office
The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...
and held a succession of front bench posts throughout the decade. For a while Betty Boothroyd
Betty Boothroyd
Betty Boothroyd, Baroness Boothroyd, OM, PC is a British politician, who served as Member of Parliament for West Bromwich and West Bromwich West from 1973 to 2000, initially for the Labour Party and, from 1992 to 2000, as Speaker of the House of Commons...
was assistant to de Freitas and she remained a friend of the family. Geoffrey and Helen now had three sons and a daughter.
In 1961 de Freitas was nominated to be British High Commissioner to Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
, and was knighted in October of that year. He resigned his seat in the Commons on 20 December 1961, taking the sinecure
Sinecure
A sinecure means an office that requires or involves little or no responsibility, labour, or active service...
of Steward and bailif of the Manor of Northstead
Manor of Northstead
The Manor of Northstead was once a collection of fields and farms in the parish of Scalby in the North Riding of Yorkshire in England. By 1600, the manor house had fallen into disrepair and was occupied only by a shepherd. At present the Manor is part of the Barrowcliff area of the town of...
. He was the first Labour appointment to an important role in one of the newly-independent former British colonies. In 1957 he had chaired a Hansard Society
Hansard Society
The Hansard Society was formed in 1944 to promote parliamentary democracy. Founded and chaired by Commander Stephen King-Hall, the first subscribers were Winston Churchill and Clement Attlee...
conference on parliamentary government in West Africa. After Accra, he was briefly in Nairobi
Nairobi
Nairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi County. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters". However, it is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun" and is...
, as British representative supporting an attempt to build a Federation of East Africa which would include Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
, Tanganyika
Tanganyika
Tanganyika , later formally the Republic of Tanganyika, was a sovereign state in East Africa from 1961 to 1964. It was situated between the Indian Ocean and the African Great Lakes of Lake Victoria, Lake Malawi and Lake Tanganyika...
and Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
.
In 1964 he was invited to stand for election to represent Kettering
Kettering (UK Parliament constituency)
Kettering is a county constituency in Northamptonshire which returns one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom....
, then a safe Labour seat, and returned to England. There was no front bench role for him with Harold Wilson
Harold Wilson
James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, FSS, PC was a British Labour Member of Parliament, Leader of the Labour Party. He was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the 1960s and 1970s, winning four general elections, including a minority government after the...
as party leader, but de Freitas led the Labour delegation to the Council of Europe
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe is an international organisation promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation...
in 1965 and was President of the Council from 1966-1969.
In 1971 his reluctance to be nominated for election as Speaker of the House of Commons
Speaker of the British House of Commons
The Speaker of the House of Commons is the presiding officer of the House of Commons, the United Kingdom's lower chamber of Parliament. The current Speaker is John Bercow, who was elected on 22 June 2009, following the resignation of Michael Martin...
led to a reappraisal of the system. From 1975-1979 Sir Geoffrey was a delegate to the European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
.
He retired from politics in 1979 and died three years later, in Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
, aged 69.
The autobiography he was writing with his wife, The slighter side of a long public life, was published in 1985.