William Wedgwood Benn, 1st Viscount Stansgate, (10 May 1877 – 17 November 1960) was a British Liberal politician who later joined the Labour Party. A decorated Royal Air Force officer, he was Secretary of State for India between 1929 and 1931 and Secretary of State for Air between 1945 and 1946. He was the father of Tony Benn and the paternal grandfather of Hilary Benn. Background and education Born in Hackney, Benn was the second son of Sir John Benn, 1st Baronet. He was given the name Wedgwood because his mother, Elizabeth (Lily) Pickstone, was distantly linked to Josiah Wedgwood of the pottery family. Benn was educated at the Lycée Condorcet in Paris and at University College, London. Political career Benn was elected as a Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) for the St George's division of Tower Hamlets in east London in 1906, holding the seat until 1918; his father had previously held the seat from 1892 to 1895. Between 1910 and 1915, he served in the Liberal government as a Lord of the Treasury (government whip). He was elected for Leith in Scotland in 1918. During the 1924–29 parliament, which was dominated by a Conservative majority, he worked closely with a group of radical Liberal MPs that included Frank Briant, Percy Harris, Joseph Kenworthy and Horace Crawfurd to provide opposition to the government. He sat until March 1927, when he resigned from the Liberal Party and from parliament. The following year he re-entered parliament as Labour member for Aberdeen North. Labour leader Ramsay MacDonald recognised his talent, and offered the possibility of promotion. Benn served as Secretary of State for India between 1929 and 1931 in MacDonald's second government, and was sworn of the Privy Council in 1929. However, he refused to follow MacDonald into the National Government coalition with the Conservatives, and at the 1931 election lost his seat to John George Burnett. He returned to parliament in 1937, when he was elected for Manchester Gorton. In 1940, following the internment of thousands of refugees under pressure from the military he spoke up for them in Parliament. In 1942, Benn was raised to the peerage as Viscount Stansgate, of Stansgate in the County of Essex. Two years later, he was appointed Vice President of the Allied Control Commission which was charged with reconstructing a democratic government in Italy. In 1945, he became Secretary of State for Air in