Geoffrey Bing Explained

Geoffrey Bing
Birth Date:1909 7, df=yes
Birth Name:Geoffrey Henry Cecil Bing
Birth Place:Craigavad, County Down, Ireland
Death Place:St Pancras, London, England
Order:2nd
Office:Attorney General of Ghana
Term Start:1957
Term End:1961
Predecessor:G. M. Paterson
Successor:George Mills-Odoi
Primeminister:Kwame Nkrumah
(president from 1960 onwards)
Office2:Member of Parliament for Hornchurch
Term Start2:5 July 1945
Term End2:26 May 1955
Predecessor2:New constituency
Successor2:Godfrey Lagden
Parliament:United Kingdom
Party:Labour
Spouse:
Children:3, including Inigo Bing
Nationality:British
Alma Mater:Lincoln College, Oxford
Princeton University

Geoffrey Henry Cecil Bing CMG QC (24 July 1909 – 24 April 1977)[2] was a British barrister and politician who served as the Labour Member of Parliament for Hornchurch from 1945 to 1955.[3] He was also Attorney General of Ghana.

Education and career

Born at Craigavad near Belfast, Bing was educated at Rockport School (of which his father was the founding headmaster) and Tonbridge School before going on to Lincoln College, Oxford, where he read history. He graduated with a second-class degree in 1931, before attending Princeton University, where he was a Jane Eliza Procter Visiting Fellow between 1932 and 1933. He was called to the Bar from the Inner Temple in 1934.[4]

Always a radical and a member of the socialist left, Bing was active in the Haldane Society and the National Council for Civil Liberties. During the Spanish Civil War, he joined the International Brigades as a journalist, barely avoiding capture at Bilbao. He was also an early anti-Nazi.

During World War II, he served in the Royal Signals, attaining the rank of major. A 1943 experiment with parachutes at the GSO2 Airborne Forces Development Centre left him disfigured and he bore the scars for many years.

At the 1945 general election, Bing stood for Labour in Hornchurch, winning the seat.[5] He was re-elected in 1950 and 1951, serving until 1955.[6] [7] He served briefly as a junior whip in 1945-46 but this was widely thought to have been the unintended result of confusion on the part of Clement Attlee, who confused him for another Labour MP of a similar name.[7]

Backbencher

On the backbenches, Bing was, according to his Times obituary, "the unrestrained leader of a small group of radicals, never fully trusted by their colleagues and known as 'Bing Boys'".[3]

He took a particular interest in the cases of Timothy Evans and John Christie, and he supported the campaign to overturn the conviction of Evans, which was ultimately successful. He supported Communist China and took a keen interest in Northern Ireland, the brewers' monopoly and parliamentary procedure.

He was also a lawyer, building up a practice in West Africa. He became close to Kwame Nkrumah, the first post-colonial president of Ghana and was appointed Ghana's attorney-general, a post he held until 1961.[3] When Nkrumah was ousted in 1966, Bing was arrested and ill-treated, before being sent home some months later. His memoir of Nkrumah's Ghana, Reap the Whirlwind, was published in 1968.[2] [8]

Personal life

In 1940, he married Christian Frances Blois, former wife of radio producer Edward Archibald Fraser Harding and daughter of Sir Ralph Barrett Macnaghten Blois, 9th Baronet. They had two sons, Inigo Bing and Richard Bing, before divorcing in 1955.[9]

In 1956, he married, secondly, Eileen Mary Cullen. They adopted a son, Patrick Adotey Bing.

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Lunney. Linde. Bing, Geoffrey Henry Cecil. Dictionary of Irish Biography. Cambridge University Press. 23 April 2017.
  2. Web site: Newmann. Kate. Geoffrey Henry Cecil Bing. Dictionary of Ulster Biography. Ulster History Circle. 23 April 2017.
  3. News: Obituary: Geoffrey Bing – Former Attorney-General of Ghana . . 25 April 1977. 18.
  4. Law Lists 1935-1977.
  5. Book: Craig. F.W.S.. British parliamentary election results 1918-1949. registration. 1969. Political Reference Publications. Glasgow. 0-900178-01-9. 353.
  6. Book: The Times' Guide to the House of Commons. 1950.
  7. Book: The Times' Guide to the House of Commons. 1951.
  8. Book: Bing, geoffrey. Reap The Whirlwind An Account of Kwame Nkrumahs Ghana. 1960.
  9. Book: Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knighthood. Burke's Peerage & Gentry . Mosley, Charles . Charles Mosley (genealogist) . 107 . 2003 . 402. Burke . 0-9711966-2-1.