Wilfrid Vernon

Major Wilfrid Vernon
Member of Parliament for Dulwich
In office 5 July 1945 – 5 October 1951
Monarch	George VI
Preceded by	Sir Bracewell Smith
Succeeded by	Robert Christmas Dewar Jenkins
Personal details
Born	Wilfrid Foulston Vernon 1882
Died	1 December 1975(1975-12-01) (aged 92–93) Bristol, United Kingdom
Political party	Labour
Military service
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Branch/service	Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) Royal Air Force (RAF)
Rank	Major
Unit	Royal Naval Air Service
Battles/wars	World War I

Major Wilfrid Foulston Vernon (1882 – 1 December 1975) was a Labour Party politician in the United Kingdom who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) between 1945 and 1951.

Early life

Educated in the Stationers' Company's School and the City and Guilds Technical College in London.

Career

Military service

Vernon served in the RNVR during the First World War, before becoming a squadron major in the RNAS and was a major in the RAF in its early days.

During 1918 he worked in the flying boat section at Felixstowe airbase and after the war became the chief draughtsman for the British Aeroplane Company. From 1925 to 1937 he worked at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, from which he was dismissed for failing to take proper care of classified information. He had also been earlier implicated in encouraging sedition at the Aldershot army camp.

During the Second World War he was involved in the foundation of the Osterley Park Home Guard School and was an instructor at the Dorking Home Guard Training School until December 1942. He later became a WEA tutor in Bournemouth and Portsmouth.

Member of Parliament

He was elected MP for Dulwich in the 1945 general election, but lost the seat in the 1951 election. He later served as a member of the London County Council, representing Dulwich and as a councillor in Camberwell.

In January 1948, Vernon gave a speech on China in the House of Commons denouncing Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist government and endorsing Mao Zedong's Communists. Vernon claimed that "the Chinese government are running one of the most ruthless and cruel police states in existence", and called for Britain to adopt "a policy of friendship and trade with the liberated areas" under Communist control.^[1]

Vernon was a member of the Fabian Society.

Spying for the Soviet Union

In February 1952, Vernon was interrogated by MI5 officer Jim Skardon and admitted having been part of a pre-war Soviet espionage ring.^[2]

Personal life

He married Josephine Jervis in 1907, and again after the death of his first wife, to Laura Gladys Meade, in 1918. His second wife died in 1972. They had two children. He died in Bristol at the age of 93.

References

1. David C. Wolf, "To Secure a Convenience': Britain Recognizes China - 1950" Journal of Contemporary History Vol. 18, No. 2 (April 1983), p. 302
2. Ewing, Keith; Mahoney, Joan; Moretta, Andrew (5 March 2020). MI5, the Cold War, and the Rule of Law. Oxford University Press. p. 162. ISBN 978-0-19-255060-6.

Bibliography

• Obituary, The Times, 3 December 1975 and "The Very Strange case of Major Vernon - MP and Spy", Duncan Bowie, The Dulwich Society, Journal 205, Summer 2020.
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Wilfrid Vernon

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Sir Bracewell Smith	Member of Parliament for Dulwich 1945–1951	Succeeded by Robert Christmas Dewar Jenkins