John Strachey (politician)
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The Right Honourable John Strachey |
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|---|---|
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| Secretary of State for War | |
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In office 28 February 1950 – 26 October 1951 |
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| Monarch | George VI |
| Prime Minister | Clement Attlee |
| Preceded by | Manny Shinwell |
| Succeeded by | Anthony Head |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
21 October 1901 Guildford, Surrey |
| Died |
15 July 1963 (aged 61) Marylebone, London |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Labour |
| Alma mater | Magdalen College, Oxford |
Evelyn John St Loe Strachey PC (21 October 1901 – 15 July 1963) was a British Labour politician and writer.
Born in Guildford, Surrey, the son of John Strachey, editor of The Spectator, he was educated at Eton College and Magdalen College, Oxford. At Oxford he was editor, with his close friend Robert Boothby, of the Oxford Fortnightly Review. Strachey's Oxford career was interrupted by ill-health – peritonitis – and he left after two years in 1922 without taking a degree. He later joined The Spectator.
Strachey joined the Labour Party in 1923 and was editor of the Socialist Review and The Miner. He unsuccessfully contested the Aston division of Birmingham in 1924. He was elected as Member of Parliament for Birmingham Aston in 1929, serving to 1931. He was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Oswald Mosley. He resigned from the Parliamentary Labour Party in 1931 for Mosley's New Party. Following the New Party's drift towards fascism he resigned to become a supporter of the Communist Party, contesting the Aston constituency as an independent.
Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists (BUF) organized a large rally at the Olympia hall in London in June 1934. A counter-demonstration was organized, and the rally turned into a fight in which many were injured. A Committee for Coordinating Anti-Fascist Activities was formed, with Strachey as secretary, sponsored by the World Committee Against War and Fascism (Amsterdam-Pleyel). When the BUF staged another demonstration of 3,000 Fascists in Hyde Park, London on 9 September 1934, Strachey's committee organized a major counter-demonstration by 20,000 anti-Fascists.
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