Dingle Foot

Sir Dingle Mackintosh Foot, Q.C., PC, (24 August 1905 – 18 June 1978) was a British lawyer and politician, born in Plymouth, Devon. He was educated at Bembridge School, a famous boys' independent school on the Isle of Wight, and at Balliol College, Oxford, and was called to the bar in 1930. From 1931 to 1945 he was Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) for Dundee. He was Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Economic Warfare in Winston Churchill's wartime coalition, and a member of the British delegation to San Francisco Conference in 1945. At the 1945 election he lost his seat to Labour. Foot left the Liberal Party and joined the Labour Party in 1956. He was Labour MP for Ipswich 1957-1970. He became Solicitor General in the government of Harold Wilson and was knighted and made a Privy Counsellor in 1964. In 1970 he was again defeated, this time by the Conservative Party. His publications included Despotism in Disguise (1937) and British Political Crises (1976).

Family

Foot's father, Isaac Foot, was a solicitor, an active member of the Liberal Party and Liberal Member of Parliament for Bodmin in Cornwall 1922-1924 and 1929-1935. His brother, Michael Foot, was a prominent figure in the Labour Party and was Leader of the Opposition 1981-1983. Hugh Foot (later Lord Caradon, father of campaigning journalist Paul Foot) was also active in politics and represented the United Kingdom at the United Nations from 1964-1970. Another brother, John, later Baron Foot, was also a politician.

References

• This page incorporates information from Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page.