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Hugh Delargy

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British politician (1908–1976)

Delargy, c. 1976

Hugh James Delargy (26 September 1908 – 4 May 1976) was a Labour Party politician and MP.

He was born in Prestwich, Lancashire, of Irish parents.

Delargy was educated in England, Paris and Rome and worked as a teacher, journalist, labourer and insurance official. He was a Manchester City Councillor from 1937 to 1946.

Delargy was Member of Parliament for Manchester Platting from 1945 to 1950, and for Thurrock from 1950 until his death in 1976. He was a Labour whip from 1950 to 1952. His successor at the subsequent by-election was Oonagh McDonald.

He was a member of the Anti-Partition of Ireland League, secretary of the Friends of Ireland, and participated in the Manchester Martyrs commemoration in Manchester in 1949 which was addressed by Éamon de Valera.

He was a holder of the Grand Cross of the Polonia Restituta awarded by the Polish government-in-exile.

Involvement in the John Bodkin Adams Affair

Delargy (left) arriving at the local council offices in Grays to submit his nomination papers for the 1951 general election

Delargy played an interesting but minor part in the aftermath of the John Bodkin Adams trial. Adams, a doctor, was suspected of being a serial killer but was controversially found not guilty in 1957. On 8 November 1956 however, the Attorney-General Reginald Manningham-Buller who was to prosecute the case, handed a confidential Scotland Yard report into Adams' activities to Dr McRae, Secretary of the British Medical Association (BMA), effectively the doctors' trade union in Britain. The prosecution's most valuable document was then copied and passed to Adams' defence counsel.

After a tip-off from a Daily Mail journalist, on 28 November Delargy (in conjunction with MP Stephen Swingler) addressed a question to the Attorney-General to be answered in the House of Commons on 3 December regarding Manningham-Buller's contacts with the General Medical Council and BMA within the last six months. Manningham-Buller was absent on the day in question but gave a written reply stating he had "had no communications with the General Medical Council within the last six months." He avoided referring to the BMA directly and therefore avoided lying, though it could be argued, deliberately misled the House.

Adams was eventually acquitted of the murder of Edith Alice Morrell but was suspected by Home Office pathologist Francis Camps of killing 163 patients.

Notes

  1. Bob Purdie, "The Friends of Ireland", in: Tom Gallagher, Contemporary Irish Studies, pp.81-94
  2. The Story of the Manchester Martyrs Archived 7 April 2008 at the Wayback Machine, Manchester Irish.com
  3. Cullen, Pamela V., "A Stranger in Blood: The Case Files on Dr John Bodkin Adams", London, Elliott & Thompson, 2006, ISBN 1-904027-19-9

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Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded byJ. R. Clynes Member of Parliament for Manchester Platting
1945 – 1950 		Constituency abolished
Preceded byLeslie Solley Member of Parliament for Thurrock
1950 – 1976 		Succeeded byOonagh McDonald
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