Desmond Louis Donnelly (16 October 1920 – 3 April 1974) was a British politician, author and journalist who was a member of four political parties during the course of his career, and moved between parties on five occasions. Origins Donnelly, whose ancestry was Irish, was born in Sibsagar, Assam, India, where his father was a tea planter; his mother was English and descended from a member of the Indian Civil Service. In 1928 he was the first of his family to return to Britain for his schooling in a century (accompanied by his mother; they lost contact with his father); he went to Brightlands School, Newnham-on-Severn, Gloucestershire. Later he attended Bembridge School (a public school) on the Isle of Wight. He first joined the Labour Party in 1936 after becoming interested in the ideas of William Morris. He did not go to university. As a keen sportsman, Donnelly became secretary of the London Grasshoppers Rugby Club on leaving school and while working as an office boy. At the age of 17 he set up the British Empire Cricket XI, which continued through the war years, supporting cricket, and raising funds for the Duke of Gloucester's Red Cross and the St John fund. He enlisted in the Royal Air Force in 1939 and served as a Flying Officer with Bomber Command. Later he joined the 'Desert Air Force' in the North African Campaign and Italy where he rose to the rank of Flight Lieutenant. On the left In the 1945 general election, Donnelly fought the constituency of Evesham in Worcestershire for Common Wealth, an idealistic socialist party generally regarded as to the left of Labour. Although there was no Labour Party candidate, Donnelly was narrowly pushed into third place by the Liberal Party candidate. Common Wealth did not long survive the election and Donnelly rejoined Labour in September 1945. From 1945 to 1946 he lectured at the RAF Staff College. On leaving the RAF, Donnelly became assistant editor and later editor of Town and Country Planning, the journal of the Town and Country Planning Association. From 1948 was that Association's Director. He contested the 1946 Down by-election as a Northern Ireland Labour Party candidate. Bevanite Donnelly was chosen to fight Pembrokeshire for the Labour Party in the 1950 general election, which a good Labour candidate had narrowly failed to win in 1945 and where the sitting Member, Gwilym Lloyd George, was