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<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{short description|British politician}}<br />
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}}<br />
{{more citations needed|date=July 2017}}<br />
{{Infobox officeholder<br />
| name = Desmond Donnelly<br />
| image = <br />
| constituency_MP = [[Pembrokeshire (UK Parliament constituency)|Pembrokeshire]]<br />
| parliament = United Kingdom<br />
| term_start = 1950<br />
| term_end = 1970<br />
| predecessor = [[Gwilym Lloyd George]]<br />
| successor = [[Nicholas Edwards]]<br />
<br />
| birth_name = Desmond Louis Donnelly<br />
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1920|10|16}}<br />
| birth_place = [[Sibsagar]], [[Assam]], India<br />
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|1974|4|3|1920|10|16}}<br />
| death_place = [[West Drayton]], England<br />
| death_cause = Drug-related [[suicide]]<br />
| party = {{unbulleted list| [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] {{small|(1936–{{circa}}45; 1945–68)}} | [[Common Wealth Party|Common Wealth]] {{small|(1945)}} | [[Democratic Party (UK, 1969)|Democratic]] {{small|(1969–71)}} | [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] {{small|(1971–74)}}}}<br />
| other_party = [[Northern Ireland Labour Party|NILP]] {{small|(1946)}}<br />
<br />
| allegiance = [[United Kingdom]]<br />
| branch = [[Royal Air Force]]<br />
| service_years = <br />
| rank = [[Flight Lieutenant]]<br />
| unit = <br />
| commands = <br />
| battles =<br />
}}<br />
'''Desmond Louis Donnelly''' (16 October 1920 &ndash; 3 April 1974) was a British [[politician]], author and [[Journalism|journalist]] who was a member of four political parties during the course of his career, and moved between parties on five occasions.<br />
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==Origins==<br />
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Donnelly, whose ancestry was [[Ireland|Irish]], was born in [[Sibsagar]], [[Assam]], [[India]], where his father was a [[tea]] planter; his mother was English and descended from a member of the Indian Civil Service. In 1928 he was the first of his family to return to Britain for his schooling in a century (accompanied by his mother; they lost contact with his father); he went to Brightlands School, Newnham-on-Severn, [[Gloucestershire]]. Later he attended [[Bembridge School]] (a [[public school (England)|public school]]) on the [[Isle of Wight]]. He first joined the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] in 1936 after becoming interested in the ideas of [[William Morris]].<br />
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He did not go to university. As a keen sportsman, Donnelly became secretary of the London Grasshoppers Rugby Club on leaving school and while working as an office boy. At the age of 17 he set up the ''British Empire Cricket XI'',<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?lr=&cd=123&id=nxSCAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22Desmond+Donnelly%22+dead+OR+died+OR+death&q=%22Desmond+Donnelly%22+ War games: the story of sport in World War Two] By Tony McCarthy. p. 54.</ref> which continued through the war years, supporting [[cricket]], and raising funds for the Duke of Gloucester's Red Cross and the St John fund. He enlisted in the [[Royal Air Force]] in 1939 and served as a [[Flying Officer]] with [[RAF Bomber Command|Bomber Command]]. Later he joined the 'Desert Air Force' in the [[North African Campaign]] and [[Italy]] where he rose to the rank of [[Flight Lieutenant]].<br />
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==On the left==<br />
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In the [[1945 United Kingdom general election|1945 general election]], Donnelly fought the constituency of [[Evesham (UK Parliament constituency)|Evesham]] in [[Worcestershire]] for [[Common Wealth Party|Common Wealth]], an idealistic [[socialist]] party generally regarded as to the left of Labour. Although there was no Labour Party candidate, Donnelly was narrowly pushed into third place by the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]] candidate.<br />
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Common Wealth did not long survive the election and Donnelly rejoined Labour in September 1945. From 1945 to 1946 he lectured at the RAF Staff College. On leaving the RAF, Donnelly became assistant editor and later editor of ''Town and Country Planning'', the journal of the [[Town and Country Planning Association]]. From 1948 was that Association's Director. He contested the [[1946 Down by-election]] as a [[Northern Ireland Labour Party]] candidate.<br />
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==Bevanite==<br />
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Donnelly was chosen to fight [[Pembrokeshire (UK Parliament constituency)|Pembrokeshire]] for the Labour Party in the [[1950 United Kingdom general election|1950 general election]], which a good Labour candidate had narrowly failed to win in 1945 and where the sitting Member, [[Gwilym Lloyd George]], was very popular, not merely because he was the son of [[David Lloyd George]]. Despite the general trend away from the Labour Party, Donnelly beat Lloyd George by playing on the fact that he was supporting the Conservatives, and won the seat by 129 votes.<br />
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In Parliament, he defined himself as "an Englishman with an Irish name sitting for a Welsh seat"<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/webarchive/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.co.uk%2Fblogs%2Fwales%2Fentries%2F197740a7-6f91-3a83-aa8d-d2db0082d19a |title=Desmond Donnelly, mercurial but doomed |date=2013-04-09 |first=Phil |last=Carradice |publisher=BBC}}</ref> and initially allied with [[Aneurin Bevan]]. He also made sure to build extensive contacts within his constituency, where he became very popular. Although his seat never became entirely safe, he was never taken to the wire. While serving as an MP, Donnelly upped his income by acting as a consultant to the engineering firms David Brown and Philips Industries and to the merchant bankers Hill Samuel.<br />
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==Gaitskellite==<br />
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In 1954, Donnelly fell out with Bevan over the issue of [[West Germany|German]] rearmament which he considered necessary. He was also outspokenly anti-[[Soviet Union]], a position which intensified after he made trips to the [[Soviet bloc]]. After 1955, he became known as a vociferous opponent of the [[Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament]] and a [[Gaitskellism|general supporter]] of [[Hugh Gaitskell]] as Labour leader.<br />
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This ensured his appointment as political correspondent for the ''[[Daily Herald (UK newspaper)|Daily Herald]]'' from 1959, but Gaitskell's death in 1963 brought in [[Harold Wilson]] with whom Donnelly was not pleased; although his skills would have merited appointment to Wilson's government after the [[1964 United Kingdom general election|1964 election]], Wilson offered Donnelly nothing.<br />
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In the mid-1960s, Donnelly decided to call for an alliance between the Labour Party and the Liberal Party. He also joined with another Labour MP, [[Woodrow Wyatt]], to publicly oppose the Labour Party policy of [[nationalising]] the [[Steel]] industry; given the narrow majority which Wilson's government had in its first term, their opposition would have been enough to vote down the plan, and any moves had to be postponed until after the [[1966 United Kingdom general election|1966 election]] gave a landslide majority.<br />
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==Labour rebel==<br />
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Donnelly began causing increasing trouble to the Labour Party whips after the election. He became chief political correspondent for the ''[[News of the World]]'' in 1967 which ensured his views were widely known. He heaped scorn on the government's handling of the economy and called for a fundamental change to the relation of the party to the [[trade union]]s "in which the unions do not look on the Labour Party as their pet [[poodle]]".<br />
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The final breach in relations came after spending cuts caused by [[devaluation]] of the [[Pound sterling]] in November 1967 forced the government to withdraw from defence commitments '[[east of Suez]]'. Donnelly resigned the Labour Party whip in the House of Commons on 18 January 1968. The Labour Party responded on 27 March by expelling him from membership of the party entirely.<br />
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==Democratic Party==<br />
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At a meeting of the [[Monday Club]] in 1968, Donnelly received a two-minute standing ovation, and then told members "Mr Wilson should resign and leave public life". However he was not willing to join the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]] and instead set up his own party, initially known as 'Our Party' but later the [[Democratic Party (UK, 1969)|Democratic Party]]. In some respects the party's policy was to the right of the Conservatives, advocating the abolition of the [[welfare state]], sweeping changes to the taxation system, and the return of [[national service]]. The party fought five seats at the [[1970 United Kingdom general election|1970 general election]] but polled poorly. Donnelly himself lost Pembrokeshire to the Conservatives.<br />
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==Later career==<br />
Abruptly, in April 1971, Donnelly announced that he had joined the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]], without warning the members of the Democratic Party. He explained that the Conservative Party closely reflected his views on reform of the law relating to trades unions and [[EEC]] entry, and attended the Conservative Party conference that October as a delegate from [[Cities of London and Westminster (UK Parliament constituency)|Cities of London and Westminster]]. He applied for, but did not get, the Conservative nomination for the [[1973 Hove by-election|Hove by-election]] in 1973, and was also rejected for [[Melton (UK Parliament constituency)|Melton]] for the next general election.<br />
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In addition to prolific journalism (he specialised in book reviews), Donnelly had gone into business after his defeat in 1970 and became chairman of ICPS Ltd and Managing Director of Practical Europe Ltd.<ref>{{cite book|title=Town and Country Planning|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7PNUAAAAMAAJ|year=1974|publisher=The Association}}</ref> In the recession of 1973 and 1974, his companies struggled financially, and this, combined with his failure to get back into the [[British House of Commons|House of Commons]] as a Conservative, was to cause serious depression.<br />
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Donnelly committed [[suicide]] in a hotel room at [[West Drayton]] near [[Heathrow Airport]] on 3 April 1974, by drinking a large amount of [[vodka]] and taking a massive [[overdose]] of [[barbiturates]].<ref name="Morgan2007">{{cite book|author=Kenneth O. Morgan|title=Michael Foot: A Life|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IrohAQAAIAAJ|year=2007|publisher=HarperPress|isbn=978-0-00-717826-1}}</ref><br />
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==References==<br />
{{reflist}}<br />
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==Bibliography==<br />
* "Mr Desmond Donnelly: An independent politician" ([[obituary]] in ''[[The Times]]'', 5 April 1974)<br />
* Donnelly, D. (1968) ''Gadarene '68''', William Kimber: London. {{ISBN|0-7183-0071-8}}<br />
* Donnelly, D. (1969) ''The Nearing Storm'', Arrow Books: London. {{ISBN|0-09-001810-9}}<br />
* Stenton, M. & Lees, S. (1979) ''Who's Who of British MPs: Volume IV, 1945-1979'', Harvester: Brighton. {{ISBN|0-85527-335-6}}<br />
* ''Welsh Political Archive Newsletter'', Summer 1998 No 25 "Desmond Donnelly Papers" (with photograph) (The [[National Library of Wales]]) [https://web.archive.org/web/20060115145319/http://www.llgc.org.uk/lc/awg_s_cylch25.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20060115145319/http://www.llgc.org.uk/lc/awg_s_cylch25.htm] (Last visited 31 July 2006)<br />
* Jones, J.G. "Desmond Donnelly and the 1963 Labour Party leadership contest", ''Llafur'', 7/3-4 (1999): 153–59.<br />
* Layne, A. (2004) ''Desmond Donnelly'' (PhD dissertation, Miami University.<br />
* Rodgers, Lord [William Rodgers]. "Desmond Donnelly", in ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''<br />
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==External links==<br />
* {{Hansard-contribs| mr-desmond-donnelly | Desmond Donnelly }}<br />
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{{succession box<br />
| title = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] for [[Pembrokeshire (UK Parliament constituency)|Pembrokeshire]]<br />
| years = [[1950 United Kingdom general election|1950]]&ndash;[[1970 United Kingdom general election|1970]]<br />
| before = [[Gwilym Lloyd George]]<br />
| after = [[Nicholas Edwards]]<br />
}}<br />
{{s-end}}<br />
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{{Authority control}}<br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Donnelly, Desmond}}<br />
[[Category:1920 births]]<br />
[[Category:1974 suicides]]<br />
[[Category:Welsh Labour MPs]]<br />
[[Category:People from Sivasagar]]<br />
[[Category:Drug-related suicides in England]]<br />
[[Category:Barbiturates-related deaths]]<br />
[[Category:British politicians who died by suicide]]<br />
[[Category:Royal Air Force officers]]<br />
[[Category:Conservative Party (UK) people]]<br />
[[Category:Northern Ireland Labour Party politicians]]<br />
[[Category:Common Wealth Party politicians]]<br />
[[Category:UK MPs 1950–1951]]<br />
[[Category:UK MPs 1951–1955]]<br />
[[Category:UK MPs 1955–1959]]<br />
[[Category:UK MPs 1959–1964]]<br />
[[Category:UK MPs 1964–1966]]<br />
[[Category:UK MPs 1966–1970]]<br />
[[Category:English people of Irish descent]]<br />
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Pembrokeshire constituencies]]<br />
[[Category:People educated at Bembridge School]]<br />
[[Category:Royal Air Force personnel of World War II]]<br />
[[Category:1974 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:British people in British India]]<br />
[[Category:Common Wealth Party]]</div>Aidan93118681