Wogan Philipps, 2nd Baron Milford (25 February 1902 – 30 November 1993) was the only member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) ever to sit in the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...

Early life

Philipps was the eldest son of

Laurence Philipps, 1st Baron Milford Laurence Richard Philipps, 1st Baron Milford (24 January 1874 – 7 December 1962), was a British peer. He was a founder and chairman of the shipping company Court Line. Philipps was the sixth son of Reverend Sir James Erasmus Philipps, 12th ...

. Philipps aimed to become an artist and set up a studio in Paris, but found little success. He abandoned this to join Medical Aid to Spain, acting as an

ambulance driver An emergency medical technician (EMT), also known as an ambulance technician, is a health professional that provides emergency medical services. EMTs are most commonly found working in ambulances. In English-speaking countries, paramedics are ...

for the Republicans in the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...

.Michael Walker
Wogan Philipps
, Compendium of Communist Biography During the conflict, he was wounded and had to return to Britain. On his return, he encouraged

Nan Green Nan Green (19 November 1904 - 6 April 1984), was a British communist who in October 1936 volunteered to join her husband George on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War. She worked in several hospitals as a medical administrator and collator ...

to take his place and, in her absence, paid for the education of her children. At the end of the Spanish Civil War, Phillips chartered a ship, paid for by donations, to transport 5000 Spanish Republicans from France to Mexico. Following his experiences, he joined the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), a choice which led him to be disinherited by his father.

Post-war life and career

In 1946, Philipps was elected as a Communist

councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

Cirencester Cirencester (, ; see below for more variations) is a market town in Gloucestershire, England, west of London. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames, and is the largest town in the Cotswolds. It is the home of ...

Urban District Council In England and Wales, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland, an urban district was a type of local government district that covered an urbanised area. Urban districts had an elected urban district council (UDC), which shared local gove ...

, but soon lost the seat. In the 1950 general election, he stood for the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

in the

Cirencester and Tewkesbury Cirencester and Tewkesbury was a parliamentary constituency in Gloucestershire which returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was created for the 1918 general election and abolish ...

constituency, but took only 432 votes. During the campaign, opponents described by Hymie Fagan as " fascists" threw rotten food, and an attempt was made to force his car off the road. In 1959, he narrowly lost a rural council by-election. Following this, he and his third wife went to study in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

. In 1962, Philipps inherited his father's title and agreed to sit in the House of Lords as the second Baron Milford. Ironically, this meant that the CPGB's last Parliamentary representative was in the House of Lords. He intended to disclaim the peerage but the CPGB leader

Harry Pollitt Harry Pollitt (22 November 1890 – 27 June 1960) was a British communist who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) from 1929 to September 1939 and again from 1941 until his death in 1960. Pollitt spent ...

persuaded him to stay on; in his

maiden speech A maiden speech is the first speech given by a newly elected or appointed member of a legislature or parliament. Traditions surrounding maiden speeches vary from country to country. In many Westminster system governments, there is a convention th ...

he called for the abolition of the institution.

Personal life and death

In 1928, he married the novelist Rosamond Lehmann. The couple had two children: Hugo, who became 3rd Baron Milford on his father's death, and Sarah, also known as Sally. By the end of the 1930s, Lehmann had left Philipps for poet Cecil Day-Lewis, but she and Philipps did not divorce until 1944. Philipps' second marriage was to Cristina Casati, Viscountess Hastings, in 1944. She was previously married to Francis Hastings, 16th Earl of Huntingdon and was the only child of the eccentric Italian arts patron

Luisa Casati Luisa, Marchesa Casati Stampa di Soncino (born Luisa Adele Rosa Maria Amman; 23 January 1881 – 1 June 1957), was an Italian heiress, muse, and patroness of the arts in early 20th-century Europe. Early life Luisa Adele Rosa Maria Amman was born ...

. The couple ran a progressive farm in Gloucestershire. His wife Christina died in 1953. A year later, Philipps married Tamara Kravetz, the widow of William Rust, editor of the '' Daily Worker''. The couple moved to Hampstead, where they lived until Philipps' death. Philipps died in London on 30 November 1993, aged 91.

Arms

References

External links

Wogan Philipps profile
Retrieved 21 September 2007. {{DEFAULTSORT:Philipps, Wogan 2nd Baron Milford Communist Party of Great Britain members Communist Party of Great Britain councillors Councillors in Gloucestershire Milford Phillips, Wogan Phillips, Wogan International Brigades personnel