Christopher Mayhew

Christopher Paget Mayhew, Baron Mayhew (12 June 1915 – 7 January 1997 ) was a British politician who was a Labour Member of Parliament (MP) from 1945 to 1950 and from 1951 to 1974, when he left the Labour Party to join the Liberals. In 1981, he received a life peerage and was raised to the House of Lords as Baron Mayhew.

Mayhew is most known for his central role in founding the Information Research Department (IRD), a secret wing of the Foreign Office dedicated to Cold War propaganda, and for asking a question in parliament that led to the end of the rum ration in the Royal Navy.

Early life Christopher Paget Mayhew was born in London, the son of Sir Basil Mayhew of Felthorpe Hall, Norwich. He attended Haileybury and Christ Church, Oxford,

In 1945, Mayhew became Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign Office, where he served under Ernest Bevin. According to a long time associate, Claud Morris, Mayhew had "ghost-written some of the most powerful speeches of Ernest Bevin'. He lobbied Bevin and Clement Attlee for a "propaganda counter-offensive" against the Soviet Union. That led in 1948 to the establishment of the Information Research Department (IRD). Mayhew was the first head of the IRD. The department's existence was made public only in 1978, two years after it had closed. Mayhew lost his seat in 1950, but soon returned to Parliament after the death of Bevin, when he won the by-election in 1951 for Bevin's seat of Woolwich East.

In 1970, Admiral Peter Hill-Norton abolished the rum ration as he felt it could have led to sailors being less capable to manage complex machinery. The last rum ration was on 31 July 1970 and became known as "Black Tot Day", as sailors were unhappy about the loss of the rum ration.

Opposition to Israel Mayhew was a consistent advocate of Palestinian rights. In 1971, with fellow MP Dennis Walters and publisher Claud Morris, he launched a bi-monthly journal, Middle East International (MEI). Mayhew had been promised £50,000 from the Sheikh Zayed of the UAE to publish the new magazine. The money was to be channeled through a foundation set up in Geneva by former Ambassador Harold Beeley calling itself the Arab Non-Arab Foundation (ANAF). Mayhew remained Chairman of MEI until his death in 1997. MEI continued to be published for a further eight years. Over its thirty-four years MEI had a number of retired British diplomats serving as directors, including James Craig and Anthony Nutting. It was described by The Jewish Chronicle as the "authoritative voice of the pro-Arab lobby".

In 1973, Mayhew offered £5,000 to anyone who could produce evidence that Gamal Ahmed Nasser had stated that he sought to "drive the Jews into the sea". Mayhew repeated the offer later in the House of Commons (Hansard, 18 October 1973) and broadened it to include any genocidal statement by any responsible Arab leader (The Guardian, 9 September 1974) while reserving for himself the right to be the arbiter of the authenticity of any purported statements as well as their meaning. Mayhew received several letters from claimants, each one producing one quotation or another from an Arab leader, all of which Mayhew assessed as fabricated.

One claimant, Warren Bergson, a 22-year old student from Salford, took Mayhew to court. The case came before the High Court in February 1976. Bergson was unable to offer evidence of Nasser's alleged statement and acknowledged that after thorough research, he had been unable to find any statement by a responsible Arab leader that could be described as genocidal. Bergson's lawyer admitted that the full text of a statement on which his client had relied made it clear that "the statement was not genocidal". Bergson offered an apology to Mayhew.

Move to Liberal Party Mayhew had been feeling increasingly uneasy with Labour policies under Harold Wilson and in 1974 he moved to the Liberals, being the first Member of Parliament to cross the floor to the Liberals in several decades. and the Letters Patent were issued on 6 July 1981 giving his style and title Baron Mayhew, of Wimbledon in Greater London, and became the Liberals' spokesman on defence in the House of Lords.

Other activities Mayhew was also active as an advocate for the mentally ill and served as Chairman of MIND (National Association for Mental Health) from 1992 to 1997.

He wrote several books, including Publish It Not: The Middle East Cover-Up (co-written with Michael Adams, 1975) and his autobiography, Time To Explain (1987).

Panorama experiment In 1955 Mayhew took part in an experiment that was intended to form a Panorama special for BBC TV but was never broadcast. Under the guidance of his friend Humphry Osmond, Mayhew ingested 400 mg of mescaline hydrochloride and allowed himself to be filmed for the duration of the trip. Samples of the audio were used in the psychedelic dance tracks "Mayhew Speaks Out" and "Christopher Mayhew Says" by the band the Shamen. Part of the footage was included in the BBC documentary LSD – The Beyond Within (1986).

Personal life In 1949, he married Cicely Ludlam, whom he met when she was one of few women in the diplomatic service, and they had two sons and two daughters.

Mayhew died in London on 7 January 1997, at the age of 81.

Publications Dear Viewer (1953) Man Seeking God (1955) Commercial Television – What is to be done? (1959) Coexistence plus. A positive approach to world peace (1962) Britain's role tomorrow (1967) Publish it not. The Middle East cover up (1975) The Disillusioned Voter's Guide to Electoral Reform (1976) Time to Explain: An Autobiography (1997) A War of Words: A Cold War Witness (1998)