Dick Mitchison, Baron Mitchison

Gilbert Richard Mitchison, Baron Mitchison, , known as Dick Mitchison, was a British Labour politician.

Life

Born in Staines, Mitchison was educated at Eton College and New College, Oxford, and became a barrister and King's Counsel. He served with the Queen's Bays in the First World War, attaining the rank of Major and gaining the Croix de guerre 1914–1918.
Mitchison stood for Parliament as a Labour Party candidate without success in King's Norton at the 1931 and 1935 elections. He worked in the Ministry of Labour during the Second World War, on William Beveridge's Manpower Survey, and led the Nuffield College social reconstruction survey. He was the successful candidate for Kettering at the 1945 election – beating the young Conservative incumbent, John Profumo – and remained the constituency's Member of Parliament until 1964. His association with Labour's left wing proved a barrier to ministerial office. Mitchison sponsored the New Streets Act as a private member's bill. He was given a life peerage, created Baron Mitchison, of Carradale in the County of Argyllshire on 5 October 1964. He served on the executive of the Fabian Society.
Mitchison died in Westminster aged 75.

Family

Mitchison married the writer Naomi Haldane in Oxford in 1916. They had six children, including four sons: Geoffrey, Denis, Murdoch and Avrion, both professors of zoology. Their daughters were Lois and Valentine, the latter of whom married the historian Mark Arnold-Forster.