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University of Oxford, Oxford, Oxfordshire OX1 3PA
John Frederick Wolfenden, Baron Wolfenden, CBE (26 June 1906, Swindon, Wiltshire – 18 January 1985, Guildford, Surrey)[1] was a British educationalist probably best remembered for chairing the Wolfenden Committee whose report, recommending the decriminalisation of homosexuality, was published in 1957. He was headmaster of Uppingham and Shrewsbury.[2]
He was the son of George Wolfenden and Emily Hannah Gaukroger, both born in Halifax, Yorkshire. George Wolfenden became an official of the West Riding Education Authority based in Wakefield, Yorkshire, where John attended Queen Elizabeth Grammar School. He won a scholarship to Oxford.
Having studied in Oxford, Wolfenden became a don at Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1929. John Wolfenden was the headmaster of Uppingham School (1934–1944) and Shrewsbury School (1944–1950) and chairman of various government committees which mostly focused on education and problems with youth. In 1950 he became Vice-Chancellor of the University of Reading and found time to write two books, Family Affair and The Steele Age, both part of the series of 'Take Home Books'. In 1957, Wolfenden chaired an independent committee initiated by the Central Council of Physical Recreation which investigated the role of various statutory and voluntary groups in sport in the United Kingdom. The committee published its report in 1960, and fifty years later it was still an influential work in its field.[3] In 1962, the Privy Council appointed Wolfenden as Chairman of the Council for the Training of Health Workers and the Council for the Training in Social Work, two bodies established by the Health Visiting and Social Work (Training) Act 1962.[4] In 1969, Wolfenden was appointed as director of the British Museum, a post in which he remained until 1973. He was the father of Jeremy Wolfenden, a foreign correspondent for The Daily Telegraph and a British spy.[5]
Wolfenden was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1942, and was knighted in 1956.[6] He was created a life peer on 12 July 1974 with the title Baron Wolfenden, of Westcott in the County of Surrey.[7]
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