Benjamin Theaker Parkin (21 April 1906 – 3 June 1969) was a British teacher and politician who served as the Labour Party

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 of ...

for

Stroud Stroud is a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is the main town in Stroud District. The town's population was 13,500 in 2021. Below the western escarpment of the Cotswold Hills, at the meeting point of the Five ...

and for Paddington North. His father, Captain B. D. Parkin, served as Headmaster of Stonehouse Council School in Gloucestershire from 1912 to 1939, and as Chairman of Stonehouse Parish Council.

Early career

Parkin was educated at

Wycliffe College Wycliffe College () is an evangelical graduate school of theology at the University of Toronto. Founded in 1877 as an evangelical seminary in the Anglican tradition, Wycliffe College today attracts students from many Christian denominations from ...

, from which he went to

Lincoln College, Oxford Lincoln College (formally, The College of the Blessed Mary and All Saints, Lincoln) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford, situated on Turl Street in central Oxford. Lincoln was founded in 1427 by Richard Fleming, the ...

; he also studied at

Strasbourg University The University of Strasbourg (french: Université de Strasbourg, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers. The French university traces its history to the ea ...

. He became a teacher, and by the time of the outbreak of the

Second World War 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 opposin ...

was on the staff of his old college; he left to serve in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

as Flight-Lieutenant.

Parliament

Shortly before the end of the Second World War, Parkin was elected as the Labour Party MP for Stroud at the 1945 general election, becoming the first ever Labour MP for the constituency. He was on the

left wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

of the party and was part of a delegation of Labour MPs who met Soviet premier

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...

in 1947; when he voted against the Ireland Bill, he was warned by the Chief Whip about his conduct.

Paddington MP

At the 1950 general election, the Stroud constituency was abolished and Parkin was narrowly defeated by only 28 votes at the new Stroud and Thornbury seat. He contested the seat again at the 1951 general election, but lost again, this time by 1,582 votes.UK General Election results October 1951, part 19
. ''Richard Kimber's political science resources''. Retrieved 23 January 2011. He was chosen to replace

Bill Field 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 Member of Parliament for Paddington North from 1946 to 1953. E ...

, who had resigned as the MP for Paddington North after a conviction for importuning. Parkin won the resulting by-election in 1953. He made another visit to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

and one to the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

in 1954. In 1956, he made the observation that, when telling the Chinese that he represented Paddington, they had responded by saying "That is where the Church owns the brothels, isn't it?"; Parkin pointed out this had a grain of truth. He was strongly in favour of removing street prostitution and also campaigned against drug abuse in his constituency.

Rachman

Parkin's most prominent campaign was over housing conditions. He was vocal in calling attention to the misdeeds of property magnate

Peter Rachman Perec "Peter" Rachman (16 August 1919 – 29 November 1962) was a Polish-born landlord who operated in Notting Hill, London, England in the 1950s and early 1960s. He became notorious for his exploitation of his tenants, with the word "Rachmanism" ...

, and others like him, calling for a system of licensing of private landlords. Parkin alleged that Rachman's reported death was merely a ploy to escape further scrutiny. He took up other housing issues, including overcharging by

Westminster City Council Westminster City Council is the local authority for the City of Westminster in Greater London, England. The city is divided into 20 wards, each electing three councillors. The council is currently composed of 31 Labour Party members and 23 Cons ...

when it took over local council housing in 1965.

Death

In 1969, Parkin died suddenly in his car while visiting his son's school in west

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. At the resulting by-election, he was succeeded as MP by

Arthur Latham Arthur Charles Latham (14 August 1930 – 3 December 2016) was a British Labour Party politician, who was the MP for Paddington North from 1969 to 1974, and its successor seat, Paddington, from that year until 1979. Early life and education L ...

References

Sources

*M. Stenton and S. Lees, ''Who's Who of British MPs'' Vol. IV (Harvester Press, 1981) *Obituary, ''The Times'', 4 June 1969.

External links

*
Vote for Ben Parkin 1945 Stonehouse history Group
{{DEFAULTSORT:Parkin, Ben 1906 births 1969 deaths Alumni of Lincoln College, Oxford Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies People educated at Wycliffe College, Gloucestershire Royal Air Force personnel of World War II UK MPs 1945–1950 UK MPs 1951–1955 UK MPs 1955–1959 UK MPs 1959–1964 UK MPs 1964–1966 UK MPs 1966–1970 University of Strasbourg alumni