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General First namePeter Bernhard William
LastnameFreeman
GenderMale
CountryEngland
Date of birth1888-10-19
Place of birthLondon, England
Date of death1956-05-19
Place of deathPenarth, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales


About

Obituary – Mr Peter Freeman, M.P. – An Energetic Performer

Mr. Peter Freeman, Labour M.P. for Newport, Monmouthshire, died at his home at Penarth on Saturday night at the age of 67 after a long illness. He was born in London on October 19, 1888, one of the nine children of George James Freeman, a leading figure in the world's tobacco industry. He was sent as a boy to the Haberdashers’ School at Hampstead. He once said that like all his brothers and sisters he was taught from the first that it was his duty to do something useful in the world, and by the time he was 21 he had become a poor law guardian for Hoxton.

He was already absorbed in industrial and labour questions, especially unemployment, when he was sent by his family’s company to take charge, as managing director, of its factory at Cardiff. Thereupon he quickly became an outstanding figure in the public life of the Principality. He turned the Freeman factories into what were described during the years after the 1914-18 War as the best equipped model works in Wales. At the same time he threw himself into what he regarded as the practical expressions of his creed, such as theosophy, pacifism, vegetarianism, and the protection of dumb creatures.

Entry into Parliament

He had been for years closely associated with Labour politics in Wales when, in 1929, he, who never ate meat, and who had always opposed the organization of armed force, was elected Labour Member for Brecon and Radnor, which contains within its bounds many miles of the greatest sheep-rearing country in the Kingdom and an ancient garrison town. These apparent contradictions were in one way typical of him. For although the money which enabled him to pursue his reforming zeal camp from tobacco he was both a non-smoker and an abstainer.

As the years passed, however, he retired from his industrial preoccupations in order to devote himself to his Parliamentary, philanthropic, and social obligations. He had been for years a member of the Penarth District Council, the Cardiff City Council, and the Glamorgan County Council, secretary of the Theosophical Society in Wales, organizing secretary of the Welsh National Association for Reconstruction, a member of the management committee of the Cardiff Royal Infirmary, and the representative of the Ministry of Labour in the Court of Referees on Unemployment, as well as chairman, in after years, of the Vegetarian Catering Association, and of the International Council for Ethiopia, and president of the Vegetarian Society of Great Britain.

He was out of Parliament after his defeat at Brecon and Radnor in 1931 until he was elected for Newport in 1945, and all those intervening years he spent in a ceaseless round of public duty. Re-entering the House of Commons, Freeman began again where he left off as the crusader in search of all those good things which had previously dominated his life.

He was quite unmoved when the House became hilarious at his attempt to prevent lobsters being boiled alive, and when some of his critics alleged, quite unjustly, that he was more concerned about the welfare of horses and dogs than about children, for he felt that his record in the pursuit of universal freedom, the industrial and social health of the community, and the welfare of the young and the aged were sufficient answers.

His last activity in Parliament had been to protest against the use of the Salk Vaccine, which he “remained convinced was a great danger.” At about the same time he resigned from the treasurership and membership of the Welsh Parliamentary Party as “an emphatic protest” against the decision of the party regarding the Severn Bridge scheme.

He had travelled widely, was a magnificent player of lawn tennis, winning the Welsh Championship in 1919 and holding it until 1921, and he was also an expert swimmer. He married Ella Drummond, daughter of the late Sir Andrew Torrance, M.P. for Glasgow, and they had one son and one daughter.

Media


Archive statistics Career1920 - 1926
Tournament wins3
Matches10
Match wins8


Tournament wins 1920 - Championships of Wales (Amateur)
1920 - South Wales and Monmouthshire Championships (Amateur)
1920 - West Wales Championships (Amateur)


Tournaments Championships of Wales - 1926 Championships of Wales - 1920 South Wales and Monmouthshire Championships - 1920 Glamorgan - 1920 West Wales Championships - 1920