Ernest Millington seems to have been an interesting man, who lived by his principles throughout his life. Wing Commander Ernest Millington - Telegraph
On 26 April 1945, Wing Commander Ernest Millington, who has died aged 93, won a sensational victory for the radical Common Wealth party in the Chelmsford byelection. In overturning a Conservative majority of 16,624, and winning by 6,431 votes, he signalled the shift in public opinion that led the Labour party to pull out of the 1945 wartime coalition government and win a landslide victory in the 5 July general election. He was again returned, with a 2,080 majority, the only Common Wealth candidate to retain his seat. When the 29-year-old Millington first took his seat, he was the youngest MP in the House, which had been elected in 1935. The general election due by 1940 had been postponed. His death marks the passing of the last survivor of that wartime parliament and the oldest former MP. He first arrived at the Commons with his newly awarded Distinguished Flying Cross ribbon inexpertly self-sewn on to his uniform. A Conservative MP, who was a squadron leader in the RAF police, approached. "You are improperly dressed," he told Millington. "If you are talking to me as an RAF officer," Millington replied, "take your hand out of your pocket and address a senior officer as 'Sir'. If you are addressing me as a fellow MP, mind your own business and bugger off." He did. Millington was born in Ilford, Essex. His mother was literary-minded; his father was a martinet, a decorated former regimental sergeant-major who became a print union official. Ernest won a scholarship to Chigwell school in Essex, where he was the poorest boy, and was fitted out with games kit from the lost property bin. He excelled, with three higher school certificates, but had to leave at 16. Later he would study at Birkbeck College, London University. He left school because his father expelled him from home after he heard him address a crowd from a street- corner soapbox on behalf of the Labour League of Youth, alongside Ted Willis, the latterly ennobled creator of Dixon of Dock Green. Homeless and penniless, the boy found a clerk's job. He was sacked when his employer heard him evangelising for ethical socialism at Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park, London. He joined the Labour party – and was expelled in the late 1930s for supporting the Communist party-backed anti-fascist popular front. In 1937 Millington married Gwen Pickard, whom he met at a Workers Educational Association meeting. War was looming, and, by then an accountant with an electrical concern, he joined the Territorial Army. By July 1939 he was a Royal Artillery second lieutenant. His father took to referring to "my son, who is an army officer". An invitation to volunteer for the RAF sent him from tedious searchlight duties to primary training on Tiger Moth biplanes. The pilot officer was then posted, as an instructor, to an aerodrome outside Grantham, Lincolnshire. There, he rented a house for his family. The nearby grocery store was owned by one Alfred Roberts, whose daughter, the future prime minister Margaret Thatcher, sometimes served in the shop. Later came a posting to Bomber Command and to Lancasters. While still a flight lieutenant, he went to an RAF conference at which he was the only officer present below the rank of wing commander, but also the one with the most operational experience. He disagreed strongly with plans advanced at the meeting, which he maintained would result in heavy casualties. This was noted by Air Vice-Marshal Sir Ralph Cochrane, commander of 5 Group, Bomber Command. Cochrane made him a squadron leader on the spot, promoted him to wing commander a few days later and posted him, in October 1944, as commanding officer of the new 227 squadron, based at Balderton in Nottinghamshire. A remarkable 30 Lancaster sorties followed, with raids ranging across Germany, Czechoslovakia and the Romanian oilfields, and taking in the bombing of Panzer tank groups during the Battle of the Bulge at Christmas 1944. By early 1945, the nation's thoughts had turned to postwar plans. William Beveridge had produced his great social security plan in 1942, and in that year too Sir Richard Acland, 15th baronet and an immensely rich Devon landowner, abandoned the Liberal party and formed the Common Wealth party. Its objectives were common ownership, democracy, and morality in politics. The party ignored the electoral truce by which the three big parties would not oppose the successor byelection candidate to a dead or retiring MP, and Common Wealth nominees made a good showing, winning byelections in 1943 and 1944. When Chelmsford's Conservative MP, Colonel J McNamara, was killed on his way home from Italy, a scratch group of Common Wealth supporters set about finding a candidate. Millington's views were well known in the area, and a deputation met him in a railway station waiting room. Ten minutes was all the time he could spare, and they made him their candidate there and then. The newly radicalised middle class rallied to his side, along with industrial workers who had moved into the area. The result was a leftwing victory in traditional Conservative territory. In the 1950 election, when he stood as the Labour candidate, he lost to the Conservative Hubert Ashton. Finding a job, particularly with his politics, was not easy, and there were no pensions for former MPs. After a spell as a door-to-door encyclopedia salesman, he rejoined the RAF in 1954 as a flight lieutenant. Controversy followed when he was accused of fraudulently "misapplying" £25 2s 3d. He denied the charge but was dismissed. He then trained as a teacher. He was head of social education at Shoreditch comprehensive school, east London (1965-67), and then headed Newham council's teachers' centre (1967-80). He later retired with his second wife to the Dordogne. Millington wrote several books. His autobiography, Was That Really Me?, was published in 2005. He is survived by his second wife, Ivy Robinson, and the four daughters of his first marriage, which ended in divorce in 1974.
Putting those two obits together, it appears he did two tours? One prior to the meeting with Cochrane et al and then one with 227 Sqn. An interesting man with a number of pivotal moments in his life. His autobiography would make interesting reading. RIP.
On one hand, the bloke was a basically a communist, and I wonder if I would have had any regard for him if he was not also a Bomber Pilot (not since my radical youth, anyway). On the other hand, I admire his integrity. He was prepared to get sacked from jobs for his principles. And when he finally trained as a teacher, he could have got a cushy job in a nice middle-class area, but he worked in a poor area of London with delinquent children (as they would have been called at the time). Also, he was prepared to fight for his country against evil: since WW2, to be "progressive" means subscribing to a menu which includes being a pacifist as well as left-wing. Basically, I respect people who think outside the box, rather than subscribe to any standard set of beliefs. Millington sounds rather like Tony Benn: someone whom I don't always agree with but is well worth listening to. I wonder what he would have thought (or think in the case of Benn) about the current scandal in parliament. Also: I was intrigued by the reference in Millington's obit, to Cochrane "sharing his radicalism". Can anyone throw any light on Cochrane's beliefs? He was an "Honourable" as well as, later, an ACM with a knighthood, so to also be radical must have been unusual. I've looked up the obvious references to Cochrane but no clue there.
I would have loved to have sat and talked to him ..... what a conversation we would have had !! :decision: Ernest Millington: Socialist MP who won the Distinguished Flying Cross - Obituaries, News - The Independent
