Queer Places:
1 Mill Ln, Adderbury OX17 3LP, UK
37 Lansdowne Rd, London W11 2LQ, UK
University of Oxford, Oxford, Oxfordshire OX1 3PA
Charles
Anthony Raven Crosland (29 August 1918 – 19 February 1977), also known as Tony
Crosland or C. A. R. Crosland, was a British Labour Party politician and
author. He served as Member of Parliament for South Gloucestershire (1950–55)
and later for Great Grimsby (1959–77).
Throughout Crosland's career he served as Economic Secretary to the Treasury (1964), Minister of State for Economic Affairs (1964–65), Secretary of State for Education and Science (1965–67), President of the Board of Trade (1967–69), Secretary of State for Local Government and Regional Planning (1969–70), Secretary of State for the Environment (1974–76) and Foreign Secretary (1976-77).
A prominent socialist intellectual, Crosland was a Labour Party revisionist on the right, as an intellectual leader of Gaitskellism. His influential book The Future of Socialism (1956) argued against many Marxist notions and Labour Party orthodoxy that public ownership was essential to make socialism work. He offered positive alternatives to both the right and left-wing of the Labour Party of his day. He questioned the need for public ownership of the means of production, often considered a socialist formulation, and argued instead for making the highest priority the end of poverty and improved public services. He led the Labour campaign to replace grammar schools with comprehensive schools that did use the Eleven-plus for the selection of pupils. In a brief period as foreign secretary, he promoted détente with the Soviet Union. He died suddenly in 1977 of a cerebral haemorrhage, aged 58.
Early in his life Crosland had numerous affairs, including with Roy Jenkins.[8][9][10]
Crosland married Hilary Sarson in November 1952, divorcing after five years, though the marriage had effectively ended after a year. Crosland had numerous affairs with other women. He remarried on 7 February 1964 to Susan Catling, an American from Baltimore resident in London whom he had met in 1956,[11] and, in contrast to his first marriage, this was very happy and content. Susan Crosland was a successful journalist and writer. There were no children of either marriage, although Crosland's second wife had two daughters from a previous marriage.[12] He persuaded his step-daughters to abandon their elite private schools to attend Holland Park Comprehensive.[13] Susan Crosland died on 26 February 2011.[14]
Crosland was a keen football fan and an avid viewer of the television show Match of the Day. He insisted on taking the then American Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, a well known football fan, to Blundell Park to watch Grimsby Town play Gillingham in April 1976 when the two met for the first time.[15] In December 1976, when Kissinger bowed out after the Republican defeat, he went with Crosland to watch a football match at Stamford Bridge between Chelsea and Wolverhampton Wanderers.[15]
My published books:
