38 Facts About Anthony Crosland

Charles Anthony Raven Crosland was a British Labour Party politician and author.

Anthony Crosland offered positive alternatives to both the right wing and left wing of the Labour Party.

Anthony Crosland later served as President of the Board of Trade, then Secretary of State for Local Government and Regional Planning.

Anthony Crosland died suddenly in February 1977 of a cerebral haemorrhage, aged 58.

Anthony Crosland's father, Joseph Beardsall Crosland, was a senior official at the War Office, and his mother, Jessie Raven, was an academic.

Anthony Crosland grew up in north London and was educated at Highgate School and at Trinity College, Oxford, obtaining a second class honours degree in Classical Moderations in Greek and Latin Literature.

Anthony Crosland then became an intelligence officer gathering information for several months in the front line about troop movements at the Battle of Monte Cassino, and was briefly involved in the Allied invasion of southern France as part of Operation Rugby in August 1944.

Anthony Crosland then became a university don at Oxford, tutoring in Economics.

Anthony Crosland, who had been talent-spotted by Hugh Dalton, was chosen as a Labour candidate in December 1949 to fight the next general election.

Anthony Crosland entered Parliament at the February 1950 general election, being returned for the South Gloucestershire constituency.

Anthony Crosland held that seat until the 1955 general election, when he was defeated at Southampton Test.

Anthony Crosland returned to the House of Commons at the 1959 general election when he was elected for Grimsby, which he would represent for the rest of his life.

Anthony Crosland was, like Roy Jenkins and Denis Healey, a friend and protege of Hugh Gaitskell, and together they were regarded as the "modernisers" of their day.

From June 1960, Anthony Crosland played an important part in the establishment of the Campaign for Democratic Socialism, a right-wing grassroots group within the Labour Party, created, in part, as a response to the debates around the Left's advocacy of unilateral nuclear disarmament and Clause IV.

However, Anthony Crosland was against Gaitskell's attempts to change Clause 4.

Anthony Crosland nominated and voted for James Callaghan in the leadership contest caused by Gaitskell's death on 18 January 1963.

Anthony Crosland rationalised his decision to back Callaghan on the basis that "We have to choose between a crook and a drunk ".

Under Wilson, Anthony Crosland was first appointed Brown's deputy in October 1964.

In November 1964 Anthony Crosland and Brown told Wilson and Callaghan that ruling out devaluation was a mistake in the face of the economic crisis then under way.

Two months later Anthony Crosland announced their decision which treated Commonwealth students for the first time as if they were foreign.

Anthony Crosland subsequently served as President of the Board of Trade from September 1967 to October 1969.

Anthony Crosland was deeply disappointed not to have been made Chancellor of the Exchequer after the November 1967 cabinet reshuffle which followed the devaluation of the pound.

Anthony Crosland was seen as a leader and intellectual guru of the "right wing" or "social democratic" wing of the Labour Party in the 1970s.

Anthony Crosland polled 61 votes of the Parliamentary Labour Party and was eliminated in the first round.

Anthony Crosland was embarrassed by the national press in January 1973 when it emerged he had been given a silver coffee pot donated by disgraced corrupt architect John Poulson when opening a school in Bradford in January 1966.

Anthony Crosland was instrumental in changing Transport policy on British Rail to be a higher fare fast intercity passenger service rather than its previous role as a general freight common carrier.

Anthony Crosland contested the leadership in March 1976 following Wilson's resignation, but polled only 17 votes and finished bottom of the poll.

Anthony Crosland once quipped to his wife that "when I pop off and they cut open my heart, on it will be engraved 'fish' and 'Rhodesia'".

Early in his life Anthony Crosland had numerous gay affairs, including allegedly with Roy Jenkins.

Anthony Crosland married Hilary Sarson in November 1952, divorcing after five years, though the marriage had effectively ended after a year.

Anthony Crosland remarried on 7 February 1964 to Susan Catling, an American from Baltimore resident in London whom he had met in 1956, and, in contrast to his first marriage, this was very happy and contented.

Anthony Crosland persuaded his step-daughters to abandon their elite private schools to attend Holland Park Comprehensive.

Anthony Crosland was a keen football fan and an avid viewer of the television show Match of the Day.

Anthony Crosland insisted on taking the then American Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, a football fan, to Blundell Park to watch Grimsby Town play Gillingham in April 1976 when the two met for the first time.

Anthony Crosland was himself an active member of the Fabian Society, contributing to the New Fabian Essays collection, which saw the emerging generation of Labour thinkers and politicians attempt to set out a new programme for Labour following the Attlee governments of 1945 to 1951.

Two further books of essays by Anthony Crosland were published: The Conservative Enemy and Socialism Now, and Other Essays.

Anthony Crosland was succeeded as foreign secretary by David Owen, who delivered his speech to the Diplomatic Writers Association on 3 March 1977.

Anthony Crosland's papers are held at the London School of Economics.