Born at Bromley, Kent on 6 November 1906. He was educated at Christ's Hospital and St John's College, Oxford, where he took 1st Class Honours and was President of the Union in 1929. He taught at Merchant Taylors' School from 1930 to 1942. He was a local preacher and under the influence of R.H. Tawney saw an essential relationship between Christianity and socialism. During the War he served in the Intelligence Corps and Education Corps. In 1945 he was elected MP for Fulham and held ministerial office in the Attlee administration. As Foreign Secretary in the Wilson government, 1965-1966 and 1968-1970, he supported America in the Vietnam War. In opposition, he was dropped from the shadow cabinet, but was a spokesman for housing and local government. In 1976 he headed the first Labour delegation to the European Parliament. In 1965 St. John's College made him an honorary fellow. He became a freeman of Hammersmith in 1967 and was made a Life Peer in 1979, a Privy Councillor in 1964 and Companion of Honour in 1969. He received honorary degrees from Leeds in 1966 and Benin in 1972. He died in London on 10 March 1990.