William James Field (22 May 1909 – 11 October 2002) was a British politician whose career was ended by a conviction for "importuning for immoral purposes" in 1953. He was

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

for Paddington North from 1946 to 1953.

Early life

Field was the son of a solicitor and grew up in south-west London. He was educated at Richmond County School, then attended the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

where he took an active part in student politics, opposing appeasement of

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. On the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, he enlisted in the Royal Army Service Corps and later served in the Intelligence Corps. At the end of the war, Field was demobilised swiftly as he had been selected as Labour Party candidate for Hampstead; in the Labour landslide election of 1945, Field reduced a Conservative majority of over 20,000 to 1,638.

Political career

Later that year Field was elected to Hammersmith Borough Council. He swiftly became the dominant figure and was made council leader the following year. He was also selected to follow Sir

Noel Mason-Macfarlane Lieutenant General Sir Frank Noel Mason-MacFarlane, (23 October 1889 – 12 August 1953) was a senior British Army officer, administrator and politician who served as Governor of Gibraltar during the Second World War. Early life and military ca ...

as Labour candidate for Paddington North following Mason-Macfarlane's resignation for ill-health reasons, and retained the seat. He improved his majority against the national trend in the 1950 general election, and was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Michael Stewart and John Strachey. In opposition after October 1951, Field was highly regarded and thought likely to be appointed as a Minister if a Labour government were formed.

Downfall

In 1953, Field was spotted by a policeman acting suspiciously in public lavatories in the West End of London. The officer arrested him for "importuning for immoral purposes", an offence which meant seeking out homosexual partners. Field gave his occupation as biochemist and pleaded guilty, but when the press discovered his real job and reported the case, he changed his plea to not guilty.''West London Observer''. 30 January 1953 Field was convicted on one charge and fined £15. He immediately appealed, with his defence led by the

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

John Maude John Cyril Maude KC (3 April 1901 – 16 August 1986) was a British barrister and Conservative Party politician. He sat in the House of Commons from 1945 to 1951, and then became a judge. Early life Maude was the son of the actors Cyril Maude ...

who was reported to have given his services free. Maude was a spirited advocate for his cause, accusing the policeman involved of having committed

perjury Perjury (also known as foreswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an inst ...

. However, Maude could not persuade the Appeal Court and the conviction was upheld. Field then resigned his seat and moved from London. He declined to give his new address to '' Who's Who''.

Later life

Field moved to

Fontmell Magna Fontmell Magna is a village and civil parish in north Dorset, England. It is situated in the Blackmore Vale, close to the chalk hills of Cranborne Chase, on the A350 road south of Shaftesbury and north of Blandford Forum. In the 2011 cens ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...

. He followed his academic interest in

Egyptology Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , ''-logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious p ...

; he was a lecturer at the

University of the Third Age The University of the Third Age (U3A) is an international movement whose aims are the education and stimulation of mainly retired members of the community—those in their third 'age' of life. There is no universally accepted model for the U3A. I ...

until his death in 2002 aged 93.

References

* "William James Field" (obituary), ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'', 15 October 2002, p. 35

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Field, Bill 1909 births 2002 deaths English Egyptologists British Army personnel of World War II Members of Hammersmith Metropolitan Borough Council Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1945–1950 UK MPs 1950–1951 UK MPs 1951–1955 English LGBT politicians British politicians convicted of crimes LGBT members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom Royal Army Service Corps soldiers Intelligence Corps soldiers LGBT military personnel 20th-century LGBT people