Nicholas Bethell

Nicholas William Bethell, 4th Baron Bethell (19 July 1938 – 8 September 2007) was a British politician. He was a historian of Central and Eastern Europe. He was also a translator and human rights activist. He sat in the House of Lords as a Conservative from 1967 to 1999. He served as an appointed member of the European Assembly from 1975 to 1979, and as an elected Member of the European Parliament from 1979 to 1994, and from 1999 to 2003.

Bethell's parents were William Gladstone Bethell (11 April 1904 – 17 October 1964) and Ann Margaret Frances (née Barlow; died 17 August 1996). His father was a stockbroker who served in the Royal Artillery in the Second World War. His father was the third son of John Bethell, a banker and Liberal politician, who became 1st Baron Bethell in 1922. His mother was the daughter of Lieutenant Colonel Robert Barlow. His parents divorced in 1946. His mother subsequently remarried three times.

Bethell was educated at Harrow. He trained as a Russian translator during his National Service from 1956 to 1958, and studied Oriental Languages at Pembroke College, Cambridge University, specialising in Arabic and Persian. He graduated in 1962, and befriended Polish students in Cambridge. He continued his education at Cambridge as a mature adult, and earned his PhD in 1987.

After he graduated, Bethell worked for the Times Literary Supplement from 1962 to 1964, and was a script editor for the BBC Radio Drama department from 1964 to 1967.

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