Ivor Bulmer-Thomas
Ivor Bulmer-Thomas CBE FSA (30 November 1905 – 7 October 1993), born Ivor Thomas, was a British journalist and scientific writer who served eight years as a Member of Parliament (MP). His career was much influenced by his conversion to the Church of England in his youth, and he became a pious believer on the Anglo-Catholic wing of the Church.
Ivor Bulmer-Thomas
30 November 1905
7 October 1993 (aged 87)
British
Labour (until 1948)
Conservative (1949–81)
SDP (from 1981)
A brilliant scholar and champion athlete while at university, Bulmer-Thomas wrote biographies and worked as a sub-editor on The Times during his early life. His experience in wartime Italian propaganda led him to doubt its value. Serving in the Attlee Labour Party government in junior roles made him resent the influence of the Labour left; he fell out with party policy on nationalisation and moved to the Conservative Party. He was a workaholic and after leaving politics he became a leading layman in the Church of England; an interest in historic buildings led him to set up the Friends of Friendless Churches group, which campaigns to prevent churches falling into disuse, and play a key role in founding the charity known today as The Churches Conservation Trust.
Family and faith[edit]
Thomas was born in Cwmbran, Monmouthshire; his father A.E. Thomas, was working class.[1] He went to West Monmouth School in Pontypool, where he abandoned his father's Baptist faith in favour of the Anglo-Catholic wing of the Church of England,[2] a decision that was to affect his future career profoundly. Although a pious believer,[1] his personal piety was described by Robin Denniston in his Guardian obituary as "always gentle and humble".[3]
Oxford[edit]
Performing well at school, Thomas won a scholarship to St John's College, Oxford, where he studied both Mathematical Mods. and Literae Humaniores (known unofficially as 'Greats' and as 'Classics' at other universities), obtaining Firsts in both.[1] He then turned to study divinity, but fell into dispute with the president of the college and moved instead to Magdalen College where he became Senior Demy in Theology.[4] He was the Liddon Student in 1928, the Ellerton Essayist in 1929, and the Junior Denyer and Johnson Scholar in 1930.[5]
Thomas' achievements at Oxford were not confined to academic life; he also became a competitive cross country runner. He represented Oxford in varsity matches against Cambridge from 1925 to 1927, in which year he won the three miles race.[2] In 1926 he had represented his country, Wales, in international cross-country running. But for an injury he would have stood a good chance of selection in the Great Britain team for the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam.[1]
On leaving Oxford, Thomas became the Gladstone Research Student at St Deiniol's Library in Hawarden, the residential library founded at William Ewart Gladstone's former house. The product of his research there was a book on Gladstone's son, published under the title "Gladstone of Hawarden" in 1936.[1] This book was preceded into print by a biography of Lord Birkenhead, published in 1930 (the year its subject died). Thomas had come to know Birkenhead through his interest in university athletics and the book has been described as witty and entertaining; it was dedicated to "my creditors".[2] David Fowler noted the following works[6]
Journalism[edit]
Thomas joined the staff of The Times newspaper in 1930, where he served in the sub-editors' room. He also wrote occasional leader columns and specialist articles on scientific subjects[2] as well as being a sports correspondent for a brief period.[1] He married Dilys Llewelyn Jones in 1932, who bore him a son.[5]
In 1935, owed some leave from The Times, Thomas took it to coincide with the general election[2] for which he had been chosen as Labour Party candidate for Spen Valley in July.[7] The sitting Member of Parliament was Sir John Simon, the Home Secretary and the contest was a high-profile one; although Simon was elected, his margin of 642 votes was closer than expected and was said to have given him a fright.[2]
Bereavement[edit]
Thomas moved to the News Chronicle in 1937 as chief leader writer, finding the time to write a biography of Welsh industrialist David Davies which was published the following year.[2] However, tragedy struck with the death of his wife in childbirth in the same year. Thomas' reaction was to write "Dilysia", a threnody which combined his increasing love of Italian literature (especially Dante) with a Christian philosophical analysis of suffering and bereavement. In later life Thomas was to identify it as his favourite piece of writing,[3] and it was republished in 1987. Thomas needed only four hours sleep, and kept volumes of Dante in the original mediaeval Italian by his bedside to read at night.[1]
Parliament[edit]
Election[edit]
After leaving propaganda work, Thomas was appointed as intelligence officer in the Cambridge area. In January 1942, he was chosen as Labour Party candidate for the Keighley byelection caused by the death of Hastings Lees-Smith.[8] The political parties had agreed an electoral truce, and a threatened Independent candidacy by B. D. Margerison of Wibsey in Bradford came to nothing when Margerison decided not to stand (despite having issued an election address).[9] Thomas was therefore elected unopposed on 13 February.[10]
Maiden speech[edit]
Thomas' maiden speech on 12 March concerned pensions, during which he argued that the means test was "a blot on our national honour". He described the principle of supporting those unable to work as "the iron ration of citizenship".[11] In his early period in Parliament he concentrated on propaganda concerns, in which he disagreed with Stephen King-Hall's call for it to be treated on the same level as the three services. Thomas argued that this was an "entirely false perspective" and that propaganda was a "valuable but ancillary weapon".[12]
Activity[edit]
In November 1942, Thomas worked with Aneurin Bevan and an all-party group of Members of Parliament to put down a motion opposing British co-operation with Admiral Darlan in French North Africa.[13] He was also active on domestic issues, supporting the movement to allow Sunday opening of theatres,[14] and for his stance he was denounced by the Lord's Day Observance Society. At a meeting of the society in February 1943, one prayer asked God to "deal with Ivor Thomas as he dealt with Saul of Tarsus".[15] (Saul is said in Acts 9:4 to have been converted hearing a voice from Heaven saying "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?")
Thomas became a very active Member of Parliament, intervening in many debates on diverse subjects both domestic and foreign. In January 1945 he was also a speaker at the inaugural meeting of the League for European Freedom, a group which worked to restore the sovereignty of all "lesser European Powers existing in 1937" and for democratic government throughout Europe.[16] With the end of the war in sight, in April 1945 Thomas drew attention to a speech by Ernest Bevin which called for Government and Opposition to share common ground on foreign policy and defence by sharing information.[17]
Government[edit]
Ministry of Civil Aviation[edit]
At the 1945 general election Thomas was easily re-elected. When he saw the list of Government Ministers appointed by Clement Attlee, Thomas took the unusual step of writing to the new prime minister to ask why his own name had not appeared on it. Attlee decided to find Thomas an appointment,[2] and made him Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Civil Aviation on 10 August 1945.[18] He was the Ministry's spokesman in the House of Commons as the Minister was Lord Winster. Thomas took over responsibility for the building of London Heathrow Airport, then known as 'Heath Row', which had been started by the Royal Air Force during the war.[19]
Thomas felt that he could only truly understand his job if he obtained a Private Pilot's Licence, and took up flying until he passed.[1] In 1946 he had responsibility for taking the Civil Aviation Bill through the House of Commons; the Bill was controversial in that it nationalised air transport into three corporations which were originally intended to have commercial freedom. Winster and Thomas were forced by left-wing pressure within the Labour Party to revisit the plans and make the corporations public monopolies.[20][21] Some Labour Members were concerned that Thomas, still a young man with little experience of the heavy work of Parliament, was in charge of such an important Bill.[2] Despite a gruelling passage, including an all day Standing Committee session,[22] the Bill was enacted on schedule on 1 August.
Colonies Office[edit]
On 4 October 1946 Thomas was moved to be Under-Secretary for the Colonies,[23] a shift which he later ascribed to an act of weakness by Attlee in giving in to left-wing pressure after the dispute over the Civil Aviation Bill.[21] With this appointment he was also a delegate to the General Assembly of the United Nations.[24] He negotiated at the United Nations over continued British administration of the colonies of Tanganyika, Togoland and the Cameroons, against attempts by the Soviet Union to limit the extent of control.[25] Early the next year he intervened in a strike in Singapore, helping to persuade 7,000 municipal labourers to return to work.[26] The Colonies Office also had responsibility for Palestine under the British mandate, in which he followed government policy of resisting illegal immigration (which was predominantly Jewish).[27]
Return to journalism[edit]
Thomas' first action on losing his seat was to go with a group of friends to drive across the Sahara desert.[1] He then returned to journalism, becoming a reviewer for The Times Literary Supplement[2] and writing obituaries for The Times. His contributions were anonymous in print but he is known to have been responsible for many important obituaries including that of Bertrand Russell.[1] From 1953 to 1954, he was acting deputy editor of The Daily Telegraph.[2]
By this time, he had changed his surname. In 1940 he had married (at Hereford Cathedral[4]) Joan Bulmer, from Hereford, by whom he had a son and two daughters;[1] in April 1952 he took the additional surname 'Bulmer-' by deed poll to acknowledge her.[3] His son by his second marriage is Victor Bulmer-Thomas, formerly director of Chatham House.