Ashley Bramall

Sir Ernest Ashley Bramall (6 January 1916 – 10 February 1999) was a British Labour Party politician, Member of Parliament for Bexley from 1946 to 1950 and Leader of the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) for 11 years.

Bramall's family were wealthy merchants from Hampshire, but his mother was a convinced socialist and did much to convince her son to support the left in politics. He attended Westminster School briefly, before moving to Canford School for the benefit of his health. He went up to Magdalen College, Oxford, in the mid-1930s to read Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He was elected to chair the Oxford University Labour Club in 1938. At Oxford he was an active debater at the Oxford Union Society where he often debated with Edward Heath. He was Treasurer of the Union in 1939.

On the outbreak of war Bramall joined the Northamptonshire Yeomanry, into which he was commissioned in 1941. He transferred to the Reconnaissance Corps later the same year and also served at the Army Staff College in Camberley, being promoted to Major. After the end of the war he served in Germany in the Allied administration. His younger brother Edwin (known as 'Dwin') was much later to be appointed Chief of the Defence Staff and created Lord Bramall.

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