David Hedley Ennals, Baron Ennals, (19 August 1922 – 17 June 1995) was a British Labour Party politician and campaigner for human rights. He served as Secretary of State for Social Services from 1976 to 1979. Early life and military career Born in 1922 in Walsall, Staffordshire to Arthur Ford Ennals and his wife Jessie Edith Taylor, Ennals was educated at Queen Mary's Grammar School, Walsall and the Loomis Institute in Windsor, Connecticut on a one-year student exchange scholarship. In 1939 he was a reporter on the Walsall Observer. In Wolverhampton on his nineteenth birthday, 19 August 1941, he enlisted in the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) and joined 9th Training Battalion (Drivers) at Alfreton. Selected for officer training, he was posted to 162 Officer Cadet Training Unit at Lanark in March 1942. He was commissioned into the Reconnaissance Corps in September 1942 and posted to the 3rd Regiment Reconnaissance Corps (NF) (3 Recce), part of the 3rd Infantry Division. His service number was 245228. Landing in Normandy on D-Day, 6 June 1944, Lieutenant Ennals commanded a Contact Detachment providing wireless links between units. On the night of 28/29 June 1944 he went on a night patrol with 1st Battalion Royal Norfolk Regiment who were holding the position to the right of 3 Recce to the north of Caen. The patrol was fired on and returned less Lt Ennals. He was reported as believed to be a prisoner of war. At the beginning of August 1944 Rennes Military Hospital was liberated by US troops. Amongst the patients was Lt Ennals, having been admitted on 3 July with at fracture of his right humerus. He was transferred to a UK hospital on the 14 August and classed as unfit for duty until he was invalided out with the rank of Lieutenant in 1947. Political career Ennals stood unsuccessfully as a Liberal candidate for Richmond (Surrey) in the 1950 general election and again in 1951. He later joined the Labour Party and served as secretary to the international department at the Labour Party's head office. In 1964 he was elected as the Member of Parliament for Dover. Following the 1966 election, Harold Wilson appointed Ennals as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Army. He moved to become Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department in 1967 under James Callaghan before being appointed as a Minister of State in the Department of