John Platts-Mills

John Faithful Fortescue Platts-Mills, QC (4 October 1906 – 26 October 2001) was a British Labour Party politician and barrister. He was the Member of Parliament for Finsbury from 1945 to 1950.

Born in Wellington, New Zealand in 1906 to John Mills, a prosperous businessman, and Elizabeth Platts, a doctor, Platts-Mills was educated at Nelson College from 1919 to 1924. He graduated with a first-class honours degree in law from Victoria University of Wellington and in 1928 won a Rhodes Scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford. At one time identifying with the conservative English Mistery group, it was the Hoare–Laval Pact which permanently altered his political outlook.

After graduating he was called to the Bar from the Inner Temple in 1932, then worked as a barrister in London, and in 1936 joined the Labour Party. On the outbreak of the Second World War he joined the Royal Air Force. However he was later told to leave, and it was suspected that this was due to his communist sympathies. Once the Soviet Union entered the war, the military was more enthusiastic about his involvement.

During the later part of the war, Platts-Mills volunteered to work as a miner, and at the 1945 general election he was elected as the Labour MP for Finsbury.

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