Tony Benn

The Right Honourable Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (born April 3, 1925), known as Tony Benn, formerly 2nd Viscount Stansgate, is a British politician regarded as being on the left of the Labour Party. He was instrumental in the creation of the Peerage Act 1963.

Family background

His paternal grandfather was Sir John Benn, 1st Baronet and his father was the 1st Viscount Stansgate; whilst the Wedgwood side of his ancestry connected him to the family of Sir Josiah Wedgwood. But in adult life he has always emphasised that his family were not idle aristocrats but part of a strong, radical dissenting tradition in which enterprise and public (mainly political) service were combined. In order to distance himself from his class origins, in adult life he shortened his name from Anthony Wedgwood Benn to Tony Benn.

Related Topics:
Sir John Benn, 1st Baronet - Josiah Wedgwood

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Tony Benn was taught to believe that the greatest sins in life were to waste time and money. Tony Benn's father William Wedgwood Benn was a Liberal MP who defected to Labour and was later elevated to the House of Lords with the title of 1st Viscount Stansgate. Both his grandfathers Sir (John Williams Benn (who founded the family publishing house) and Daniel Holmes) were also Liberal MPs (for St. George's, Tower Hamlets) and Devonport and Govan, respectively).

Related Topics:
William Wedgwood Benn - Liberal - MP - House of Lords - John Williams Benn - Devonport - Govan

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His mother Margaret (née Eadie) (1897-1991), was a dedicated theologian, founder President of the Congregational Federation and feminist. She was member of the League of the Church Militant which was the predecessor of the Movement for the Ordination of Women. In 1925 she was rebuked by Randall Thomas Davidson, the then Archbishop of Canterbury, for advocating the ordination of women. His mother's theology had a profound influence on Tony Benn, as she taught him to support the prophets and not the Kings, as the prophets taught righteousness.

Related Topics:
Theologian - Feminist - Randall Thomas Davidson - Archbishop of Canterbury - Ordination of women

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He was a pupil at Westminster School and studied at Oxford University (New College) during which time he was elected as President of the Oxford Union.

Related Topics:
Westminster School - Oxford University - New College - Oxford Union

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Benn met US-born educationalist Caroline Middleton DeCamp (from Cincinnati, Ohio, daughter of a lawyer) over tea at Worcester College in 1949 and nine days later he proposed to her on a park bench in the city. Later, he bought the bench from Oxford City Council and installed it in the garden of their house in Holland Park. Tony and Caroline had four children - Stephen, Hilary (who is a Labour MP and cabinet minister), Melissa and Joshua, and ten grandchildren. Caroline died in 2000 aged 74.

Related Topics:
Caroline Middleton DeCamp - Cincinnati - Ohio - Oxford City Council - Holland Park - Hilary - 2000

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His children have also been active in politics and his son Hilary Benn is the Secretary of State for International Development. This makes him the third generation of his family to have sat in the Cabinet of the Government of the United Kingdom, a unique distinction for a modern political family in Britain.

Related Topics:
Hilary Benn - Cabinet

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Tony Benn was a cousin of the late actress, Dame Margaret Rutherford.

Related Topics:
Actress - Margaret Rutherford

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