Scope and Contents
Pocket diaries and a notebook
Dates
- 1954 - 2003
Conditions Governing Access
The collection is open for consultation by researchers using Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge.
Conditions Governing Use
Researchers wishing to publish excerpts from the papers must obtain prior permission from the copyright holders and should seek advice from Archives Centre staff.
Biographical / Historical
Gerald Kaufman was born in Leeds, 21 June 1930, the son of Louis and Jane Kaufman. He was educated at Leeds Grammar School and Queen's College, Oxford, 1950-3.
He was Assistant General Secretary of the Fabian Society, 1954-5, and then worked as a political journalist on the Daily Mirror, 1955-64, and the New Statesman, 1964-5. He became Parliamentary Press Liaison Officer for the Labour Party, 1965-70.
He contested elections in Bromley, 1955, and Gillingham, 1959, before being elected Labour Member of Parliament for Manchester Ardwick, 1970-83, and subsequently Manchester Gorton, 1983-. He was a Minister in the Department of the Environment, 1974-5, and the Department of Industry, 1975-9. In Opposition, he was Shadow Environment Secretary, 1980-3; Shadow Home Secretary, 1983-7; and Shadow Foreign Secretary, 1987-92. He chaired the Select Committee for Culture, Media and Sport [formerly the Select Committee on National Heritage], 1992-2005; and was a member of the Parliamentary Committee of the Parliamentary Labour Party, 1980-92, of the Labour Party National Executive Committee, 1991-2. and of the Royal Commission on House of Lords Reform, 1999. He was also Chairman of the Booker Prize Judges, 1999.
He was awarded a knighthood in 2004 and died on 26 February 2017.
His publications include: "How to Live Under Labour" (1964); editor, "The Left" (1966); "To Build the Promised Land" (1973); "How to be a Minister" (1980); editor, "Renewal: Labour's Britain in the 1980s" (1983); "My Life in the Silver Screen" (1985); "Inside the Promised Land" (1986); "Meet Me in St Louis" (1994). He also wrote scripts for the television show "That Was The Week That Was" in the 1960s.
Extent
2 archive box(es) : paper
Language of Materials
English
Other Finding Aids
Copies of this catalogue are available for consultation at Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge and the National Register of Archives, London.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The papers were given to Churchill Archives Centre by Sir Gerald Kaufman, 2006.
General
This catalogue was created by Sophie Bridges, December 2006. Biographical information was obtained from "Who's Who" (2005); the Wikipedia website; and "Guardian Unlimited", the website of "The Guardian" newspaper.
Originator(s)
Kaufman, Sir Gerald Bernard, 1930-2017, Knight, politician
- Date
- 2002-01-30 16:27:00+00:00
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Churchill Archives Centre Repository
Churchill Archives Centre
Churchill College
Cambridge Cambridgeshire CB3 0DS United Kingdom
+44 (0)1223 336087
archives@chu.cam.ac.uk