Charles Challen (15 February 1894 – 20 June 1960) was a British

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

and politician.

Biography

Challen received a Bachelor of Laws and Master's degree from Jesus College, Cambridge (later becoming a member of the Oxford and Cambridge Club). During the First World War, he served in France and Egypt as a Lieutenant in the

Royal Field Artillery The Royal Field Artillery (RFA) of the British Army provided close artillery support for the infantry. It came into being when created as a distinct arm of the Royal Regiment of Artillery on 1 July 1899, serving alongside the other two arms of t ...

. He never married. Challen was Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...

from 1941 to 1950. In October 1945, an antisemitic petition was drawn up, with the help of

Waldron Smithers Sir Waldron Smithers (5 October 1880 – 9 December 1954) was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom. He was a member of Parliament for more than 30 years and an active anti-communist. Early life and family Smithers was educated ...

's (Conservative MP for Orpington) Fighting Fund for Freedom, by residents of Hampstead, requesting "that aliens of Hampstead should be repatriated to assure men and women of the Forces should have accommodation upon their return" from World War II.Graham Macklin, 'A quite natural and moderate defensive feeling'? The 1945 Hampstead 'anti-alien' petition' (2003) in ''Patterns of Prejudice'' 37:3 DOI: 10.1080/00313220307594 The petition was signed by the antisemitic Conservative mayor of Hampstead Sydney A. Boyd and four of Hampstead's Conservative councillors, with the rest of the Conservative members of the council in favour of the petition. Hampstead's Conservative MP, Charles Challen, promised to give the petition his "unstinting support"Hannah Ewence, 'Placing the 'Other' in Our Midst: Immigrant Jews, Gender and the British Imperial Imagination' (2010), University of Southampton, Faculty of Humanities, PhD Thesis and he asked a number of questions in the House of Commons on behalf of the petitioners over the following months. When the petition was complete, Conservative Councillor J. A. Hughes passed it to Challen who, "rather than repudiate the sponsors for their antisemitism", delivered it to Parliament. He died on 20 June 1960, aged 66.

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* 1894 births 1960 deaths UK MPs 1935–1945 UK MPs 1945–1950 Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Place of birth missing British barristers People from Hampstead British Army personnel of World War I Royal Field Artillery officers {{England-Conservative-UK-MP-1890s-stub