Denis Nowell Pritt was born in London on
22nd September 1887. After being educated at Winchester
and London University he became a barrister.
A member of the Labour Party he was elected
to represent Hammersmith North in 1935.
A
strong supporter of a military alliance with the Soviet
Union against Nazi Germany, Pritt
wrote a series of books and pamphlets on foreign policy including
Light
on Moscow (1939), Must the War
Spread? (1940), Federal Illusion
(1940), Choose your Future (1940)
and The Fall of the French Republic
(1940). Pritt
was expelled from the Labour Party in March
1940 after defending the Red Army invasion
of Finland.
In
the 1945 General Election Pritt successfully
defeated the official Labour Party candidate in Hammersmith. In the
House of Commons Pritt associated with
a group of left-wing members that included John
Platts-Mills, Konni
Zilliacus,
Leslie
Solley, Ian
Mikardo, Barbara
Castle, Sydney
Silverman, Geoffrey Bing, Emrys
Hughes, Lester
Hutchinson,
William Warbey, William
Gallacher and
Phil Piratin.
He
continued to write books and pamphlets and during this period he published
USSR
Our Ally (1941), India Our Ally?
(1946), Revolt in Europe (1947),
A New World Grows (1947), Star-Spangled
Shadow (1947) and The State Department
and the Cold War (1948).
In 1949
Pritt and four other expelled Labour MPs, John
Platts-Mills, Leslie
Solley, Konni
Zilliacus and Lester
Hutchinson formed the Labour Independent Group.
Pritt's opposition to the
Cold War and the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
made him an unpopular figure in post-war England and he was defeated
when he stood as an Independent Labour candidate at Walthamstow East
in the 1950 General Election.
Pritt returned to his work
as a barrister. He also continued to write and his books included
Spies and Informers in the Witness-box
(1958), Liberty in Chains (1962)
and The Labour Government, 1945-1951
(1963). He also Professor of Law at the University of Ghana (1965-1966),
Chairman of the Howard League for Penal Reform and a member of the
World Peace Council.
Other books by Pitt include
Neo-Nazis, the Danger of War
(1966) and three volumes of autobiography: From
Right to Left (1965), Brasshats
and Bureaucrats (1966) and The
Defence Accuses (1966).
Denis
Nowell Pritt died
on 23rd May, 1972.
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