Philip Noel-Baker was born on 1st
November, 1889. His father, Joseph Allen Baker, was a
Quaker who
ran a successful machine manufacturing form. Baker, a
pacifist,
was a member of the
London County
Council (1895-1907) and the
House of Commons
(1905-1918).
After graduating from
King's
College,
Cambridge, he continued his education in Paris and Munich and in 1914
was appointed vice-principal of Ruskin College in
Oxford. On
the outbreak of the
First World War he became the commandant of the Friends' Ambulance Unit
and served on the
Western Front
(1914-15) and it
Italy (1915-18).
In 1918 Noel-Baker became principal assistant to
Robert
Cecil on the committee which drafted the
League of
Nations Covenant. After its formation he was a member of the Secretariat
of the League as served as principal assistant to Sir
Eric Drummond,
the secretary-general of the League.
Noel-Baker was fluent in seven languages. He was also an
exceptional athlete and was captain of the British team in the 1920 Olympic
Games in Antwerp and won the silver medal in the 1,500 metres.
In 1924 Noel-Baker became professor for international
relations at
London University. He held the post until 1929 when he was appointed as
a member of the British delegation to the Assembly of the
League of
Nations. During this period Noel-Baker wrote several books including
The League of Nations at Work
(1926),
Disarmament (1926) and
Disarmament and the Coolidge Conference
(1927).
Noel-Baker, a member of the
Labour Party,
was elected to the
House of Commons
in 1929. He was a member of the National Executive of the Labour Party in
1937 and during the
Second World War he joined the government as parliamentary secretary to
the Master of War Transport.
In 1944 Noel-Baker was placed in charge of British
preparatory work for the
United Nations
and the following year helped to draft the Charter of the UN at
San
Francisco. In 1946 Noel-Baker was a member of the British
delegation.
In the government led by
Clement Attlee
Noel-Baker served as Minister of State in the Foreign Office (1945-1946),
Secretary of State for Air (1946-1947), Secretary of State for Commonwealth
Relations (1947-1950) and Minister of Fuel and Power (1950-51).
After the
Labour Party
lost the 1951
General Election Noel-Baker became a member of the shadow cabinet. He
also published his books, The Arms Race: A
Programme for World Disarmament (1958). The following year he won
the Nobel
Peace Prize.
In 1960 Noel-Baker was appointed as
president of the International Council on Sport and Physical Recreation of
UNESCO. Other books by Noel-Baker include The Arms
Race (1960),
The Private Manufacture of
Armaments (1975)
Disarm or Die
(1978) and The First World Disarmament Conference (1979).
Philip Noel-Baker died in
London on
8th October, 1982.
John
Simkin
