Austen Albu Explained

Austen Albu
Office:Minister of State for Economic Affairs
Term Start:27 January 1965
Term End:7 January 1967
Primeminister:Harold Wilson
Predecessor:Anthony Crosland
Successor:Thomas Urwin
Office1:Member of Parliament
for Edmonton
Term Start1:13 November 1948
Term End1:8 February 1974
Predecessor1:Evan Durbin
Successor1:Ted Graham
Birth Date:21 September 1903
Nationality:British
Party:Labour (until 1981)
SDP (1981-88)
Spouse:Marie Jahoda

Austen Harry Albu (21 September 1903 – 23 November 1994) was a British[1] Labour Member of Parliament for Edmonton for 25 years.

Personal life

Albu was born in London in 1903 to Ferdinand and Beatrice Albu. He was educated at Tonbridge School, Kent, and the City and Guilds College.[2]

He married his first wife, Rose Marks, in 1929. They had two sons before her death in 1956. In 1958, he married the Anglo-Austrian social psychologist Marie Jahoda.[3]

Career

During the 1930s and early 1940s, Albu worked at Aladdin Industries in Greenford. In the later 1940s, he was Deputy President of the Governmental Sub-Commission of the British Control Commission in Germany during the Allied occupation following World War II, where he advocated the establishment of a centrally planned economy for the country, thus favouring the social democratic approach.[4] Returning to Britain in 1947, he was the Deputy Director of the British Institute of Management for a short period until his election to parliament.

Albu first won his Edmonton seat at a by-election in 1948, and held it until his retirement at the February 1974 general election. From 1965 to 1967, he was the Minister of State for Economic Affairs. He later joined the Social Democratic Party (SDP).[5]

He was a Fellow of Imperial College of Science and Technology. He was also a writer of several essays, the most cited being Socialism and the study of man. He is also attributed as one of the authors of New Fabian Essays (1952).[6]

External links

Notes and References

  1. [William D. Rubinstein]
  2. Web site: The Papers of Austen Albu. live. 2021-09-22. Churchill Archives Centre (ArchiveSearch). https://web.archive.org/web/20201201063313/https://archivesearch.lib.cam.ac.uk/repositories/9/resources/1396 . 1 December 2020 .
  3. Book: Haines. Catharine M. C.. International Women in Science: A Biographical Dictionary to 1950. Stevens. Helen M.. ABC-CLIO. 2001. 978-1-57607-090-1. Santa Barbara, CA. 147.
  4. Book: Hook, James C. Van. Rebuilding Germany: The Creation of the Social Market Economy, 1945–1957. Cambridge University Press. 2004. 0521833620. Cambridge. 66.
  5. Book: SDP: The Birth, Life and Death of the Social Democratic Party. 1995. Oxford University Press. 9780198280507. Ivor Martin Crewe, Anthony Stephen King. 94.
  6. Book: Laidler, Harry W.. History of Socialism: An Historical Comparative Study of Socialism, Communism, Utopia. 2013-07-04. Routledge. 978-1-136-23143-8. Oxon. 865.