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Jonathan William Patrick Aitken (born 30 August 1942) is a former Conservative Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom for 24 years, and a former British government Cabinet minister. He was convicted of perjury in 1999 and received an 18-month prison sentence, of which he served seven months. He is currently president of Christian Solidarity Worldwide.

Family[link]

Aitken's parents were Sir William Aitken, a former Conservative MP, and Penelope Aitken, daughter of John Maffey, 1st Baron Rugby. Aitken is a great-nephew of newspaper magnate and war-time minister Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook (Lord Beaverbrook). His sister is the actress Maria Aitken and his nephew is the actor Jack Davenport. He is godfather to James Abbott, the son of Labour left-winger Diane Abbott.^[1]

In 1999, DNA testing confirmed that Petrina Khashoggi, daughter of billionaire arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, was Aitken's biological child, the result of an affair with Soraya Khashoggi, née Sandra Daly, then wife of Adnan Khashoggi.^[2] His other children include twin daughters, Alexandra and Victoria Aitken,^[2] as well as his son William Aitken.^[3][4]

Early life[link]

Aitken was born in Dublin, Ireland. His grandfather Lord Rugby was in 1939 the first British representative to the newly independent Irish state, at a time when Anglo-Irish relations were strained but improving. Aitken's baptism took place on 16 October 1942 at St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, an Anglican church, at which he was named "Jonathan William Patrick Aitken". The third name, "Patrick", was included at a late stage owing to the unexpected international importance of the occasion –- one of the Irish papers reported "British envoy's grandson is a real Paddy". The Taoiseach, Éamon de Valera, who knew his grandparents, asked to attend the christening and his presence at the baptism symbolised improving Anglo-Irish relations. Also attending was Princess Juliana (later to become Queen Juliana of the Netherlands) as his godmother.^[5]

Aitken contracted tuberculosis, and when he was four years of age he was admitted to Cappagh Hospital, Dublin where he was an inpatient on a TB ward for more than three-and-a-half years, being cared for and educated by Catholic nuns. At that time, before the use of antibiotics for treating tuberculosis, his doctors were initially gloomy about his chances of survival or being able to walk again. His treatment included being strapped to a frame and a plaster cast to immobilise him, as well as participation in the routine of breathing fresh air outside on the terrace every morning. From time to time the death of one of the children was announced on the ward, but Aitken did not think that tuberculosis would be the cause of his own demise. He had a competitive spirit and wanted to recover before other children on the ward. His grandparents visited him regularly in hospital, and John Betjeman, who was on his grandfather's staff as a press secretary, also visited him. At Aitken's grandparents' request, Betjeman visited partly to check that he was not being indoctrinated to Catholicism. During this time his mother was kept very busy looking after his father in England, who was severely injured as an RAF pilot when his Spitfire was shot down in World War II, as well as visiting her family in Ireland and her son in hospital.^[5]

At Cappagh Hospital Aitken recovered and began to walk unsteadily. He was seven when he was discharged from the hospital and was sad to leave the hospital staff, especially the key nun involved in his care. After he was discharged he moved to Halesworth, Suffolk, to live with his parents, and he learnt to walk properly again within a few months. His parents were often understandably concerned about his health and were worried about tuberculosis returning when he had a cold. Aitken's discharge from Cappagh Hospital, the ending of his grandfather's term of office in Ireland, and his father's discharge from hospital in England all took place at about the same time. His mother bought two houses near to each other in Halesworth not far from the sea. He spent a lot of time with his grandparents at the larger house, a double-fronted Georgian house known as "Quay House" with grounds that included a big garden containing a small nine-hole putting green, and a small cricket pitch on land on the other side of a river.^[5]

Aitken went to Eton College and read law at Christ Church, Oxford.^[6] His career initially followed a similar path to the post-war career of his father, who became a journalist and then the Conservative Member of Parliament for Bury St Edmunds.^[5]

Journalist[link]

He served as a war correspondent during the 1960s in Vietnam and Biafra, and gained a reputation for risk-taking when he took LSD in 1966 as an experiment for an article in The London Evening Standard and had a bad trip "..this drug needs police, the Home Office and a dictator to stamp it out..."^[6][7]

He was also a journalist at Yorkshire Television from 1968 to 1970, presenting the regional news show Calendar. Aitken was the first person to be seen on screen from Yorkshire Television when it started broadcasting.^[8]

In 1970 Aitken was acquitted at the Old Bailey for breaching section 2 of the Official Secrets Act 1911, when he photocopied a report about the British government's supply of arms to Nigeria, and sent a copy to The Sunday Telegraph and to Hugh Fraser, a pro-Biafran Tory MP. As a result of the case he was dropped as the Conservative candidate for the Thirsk and Malton parliamentary constituency.^[9][10]

In 1993 Aitken published a favourable biography, Nixon: A Life, of former US President Richard Nixon. Although his was not an authorised biography, Aitken was one of the few biographers from whom Nixon accepted questions and to whom he granted interviews.

Parliamentary career[link]

He was elected as MP for Thanet East in the February 1974 General Election; from 1983 he sat for South Thanet. A notably handsome man^[11], he managed to offend PM Margaret Thatcher by ending a relationship with her daughter, Carol Thatcher, and suggesting that Thatcher "probably thinks Sinai is the plural of Sinus" to an Egyptian newspaper. He stayed on the backbenches throughout Thatcher's premiership and engaged in a number of activities, including participation in the re-launch of TV-am (where he was involved in an incident in which broadcaster Anna Ford threw her wine at him to express her outrage at both his behaviour and the unwelcome consequent transformation of the TV station).

Opens Hollis affair[link]

Aitken wrote a highly confidential letter to Thatcher in early 1980, dealing with allegations that the former Director-General of MI5, Sir Roger Hollis, had been a double agent also working for the Soviet Union. This information had come to Aitken from retired CIA spymaster James Angleton. Espionage historian Chapman Pincher obtained a copy of the letter, and used former MI5 officers Peter Wright and Arthur Martin as his main additional secret sources, to write the sensational book Their Trade is Treachery in 1981. This matter raged full of controversy throughout the 1980s, and led to Wright eventually publishing his own bestselling book "Spycatcher" in 1987, despite the government's prolonged and bitter court attempts to stop him in Australia from doing so.^[12]

Minister of State for Defence Procurement[link]

Aitken became Minister of State for Defence Procurement under PM John Major in 1992.^[13] He was later accused of violating ministerial rules by allowing an Arab businessman to pay for his stay in the Paris Ritz, perjured himself and was jailed (see below).^[13]

Aitken had previously been a director of BMARC, an arms exporter, from 1988 to 1990.^[13] In 1995 a Commons motion showed that while a Cabinet minister he had signed a controversial Public Interest Immunity Certificate (PIIC) certificate in September 1992 relating to the Matrix Churchill trial; and that the 'gagged' documents included ones relating to the supply of arms to Iraq by BMARC for a period when he was a director of the company.^[14]

Chief Secretary to the Treasury[link]

He became Chief Secretary to the Treasury in 1994, a Cabinet position, but resigned in 1995 following the allegations that he had violated ministerial rules.

He was defeated in the 1997 election.^[13] Within a year he had be appointed as a representative for the arms company GEC-Marconi.^[13] (part of BAE Systems since November 1999).

Libel, arrest and prison[link]

Libel action[link]

On 10 April 1995, The Guardian carried a front-page report on Aitken's dealings with leading Saudis. The story was the result of a long investigation carried out by journalists from the newspaper and from Granada TV's World In Action programme. Aitken had called a press conference at the Conservative Party offices in Smith Square, London, at 5 o'clock that same day denouncing the claims and demanding that the World In Action documentary, which was due to be screened three hours later, withdraw them. He notoriously said:^[15]

"If it falls to me to start a fight to cut out the cancer of bent and twisted journalism in our country with the simple sword of truth and the trusty shield of British fair play, so be it. I am ready for the fight. The fight against falsehood and those who peddle it. My fight begins today. Thank you and good afternoon."

The World In Action film, Jonathan of Arabia, went ahead and Aitken carried out his threat to sue. The action collapsed in June 1997 (a month after he had lost his seat in the 1997 General Election) when the Guardian and Granada produced, via their counsel George Carman QC, evidence countering his claim that his wife, Lolicia Aitken, paid for the hotel stay at the Ritz Hotel in Paris. The evidence consisted of airline vouchers and other documents showing that his wife had, in fact, been in Switzerland at the time when she had allegedly been at the Ritz in Paris. The joint Guardian/ Granada investigation indicated an arms deal scam involving Aitken's friend and business partner, the Lebanese businessman Mohammed Said Ayas, a close associate of Prince Mohammed of Saudi Arabia. It was alleged that Aitken had been prepared to have his teenage daughter Victoria lie under oath to support his version of events, had the case continued.^[16]

A few days after the libel case collapsed, World In Action broadcast a special edition, which echoed Aitken's "sword of truth" speech. It was entitled The Dagger of Deceit.

During this time it emerged that when Aitken was being encouraged to resign, he was chairman of the secretive right wing think-tank Le Cercle,^[17] alleged by Alan Clark to be funded by the CIA.^[18]

Perjury conviction and imprisonment[link]

Aitken was charged with perjury and perverting the course of justice, and in 1999 was jailed for 18 months,^[19] of which he served seven. During the preceding libel trial, his wife Lolicia, who later left him, was called as a witness to sign a supportive affidavit to the effect that she had paid his Paris hotel bill, but did not appear. In the end, with the case already in court, investigative work by Guardian reporters into Swiss hotel and British Airways records showed that neither his daughter nor his wife had been in Paris at the time in question.

Bankruptcy[link]

Aitken was unable to cover the legal costs of his libel trial and was declared bankrupt. As part of the bankruptcy, his trustees settled legal actions against the magazine Private Eye, over the various claims it had made that Aitken was a "serial liar". He also became one of the few people to resign from the Privy Council. Aitken's wife and three daughters -- twins Victoria and Alexandra Aitken and Petrina Khashoggi -- turned up to support him when he was sentenced. Petrina was a previously unacknowledged daughter by Soraya Khashoggi, ex-wife of arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi. On DNA testing at the age of 18, she had turned out to be Aitken's, though Khashoggi had previously accepted her as his own.

To date [July 2011], Aitken is the only British Cabinet minister ever to have been sent to jail. [2]

Prison stay and theology study[link]

Aitken attended the Alpha Course in 1997, which he claims stirred his interest in Christianity. He attended the course on further occasions prior to imprisonment.^[20] After being imprisoned in 1999, he began to study the Bible, learned Greek, and became a student of Christian theology at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. This part of his life is covered in two autobiographical works called Pride and Perjury and Porridge and Passion. He married his second wife, Elizabeth Harris, in June 2003.

Aitken's claim that he had found God initially met with some scepticism,^[21][22] and he said that he would not become a vicar because he is not worthy of the office and "wouldn't like to give dog-collars a bad name".^[23]

In 2006 Aitken became honorary president of Christian Solidarity Worldwide.^[24]

On Sunday 13 July 2008, he gave a sermon at King's Church International in Windsor entitled "Finding God in the Depths". Senior Pastor Wes Richards introduced his coming as a great privilege and described Aitken as a friend both to himself and the church.^[25]

Political comebacks[link]

In early 2004, some constituency party members in Aitken's former seat of South Thanet proposed that he should return as Conservative candidate for the seat. This was vetoed by Conservative Party leader Michael Howard.^[26]

Aitken later confirmed that he would not attempt a return to Parliament, saying that "the leader has spoken. I accept his judgement with good grace." He denied rumours he was to stand as an independent candidate insisting that he was not a "spoiler".

Aitken later declared his support for the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP)^[27] a week before the party's strong performance in the 2004 European elections. On 2 October 2004, Aitken attended the (UKIP) conference and re-iterated his support for the party.

Ashley Merry, Veritas Party defence spokesman, is public relations advisor to Aitken.

In November 2007, with the approval of senior members of the Shadow Cabinet, he took charge of a task force on prison reform within Iain Duncan Smith's Centre for Social Justice to help formulate Conservative policy.^[28] Aitken stated this was not part of a political comeback. Conservative spokesmen pointed out that the task force is independent of the party, even though the organisation is run by Iain Duncan Smith, who is a former Tory leader. The report Locked Up Potential: A Strategy to Reform our Prisons and Rehabilitate our Prisoners^[29][30] was published in March 2009.^[31][32]

Present employment[link]

Jonathan Aitken is currently the honorary president of Christian Solidarity Worldwide and is a popular Christian writer.^[33]

Works[link]

In 2005, Aitken produced "Prayers for People under Pressure" in which he chronicles his move from reserved, self-centred, formal Anglican religious practice to open fellowship and prayer with an unlikely group of ex-MPs, broadcasters and church leaders from various denominational backgrounds. Aitken then reflects on a wide variety of prayers taken from many parts of church history, all of which assist people under pressure.

In 2007, Aitken published a biography of the English sailor and Anglican clergyman John Newton (1725–1807), with the title, John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace (Crossway Books).

In April 2008, The Observer's diary reported that Aitken was writing a biography of the President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, with the president's cooperation.^[34] Aitken completed the biography and published it in 2009, under the title Nazarbayev and the Making of Kazakhstan.

See also[link]

• Jeffrey Archer — Aitken's contemporary, another Conservative politician and writer imprisoned for perjury.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Jonathan Aitken's website
• Daily Mail
• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Jonathan Aitken

v t e Chief Secretaries to the Treasury Brooke · Boyd-Carpenter · Diamond · Macmillan · Jenkin · Boardman · Barnett · Biffen · Brittan · Rees · MacGregor · Major · Lamont · Mellor · Portillo · Aitken · Waldegrave · Darling · Byers · Milburn · Smith · Boateng · Browne · Timms · Burnham · Cooper · Byrne · Laws · Alexander

v t e Major Cabinet Cabinet Members Jonathan Aitken • Kenneth Baker • Virginia Bottomley • Peter Brooke • Kenneth Clarke • Viscount Cranborne • Stephen Dorrell • Michael Forsyth • Roger Freeman • John Gummer • William Hague • Jeremy Hanley • Michael Heseltine • Douglas Hogg • Michael Howard • David Hunt • Douglas Hurd • Tom King • Norman Lamont • Ian Lang • Peter Lilley • John MacGregor • Lord Mackay • John Major • Brian Mawhinney • Patrick Mayhew • David Mellor • Tony Newton • Chris Patten • John Patten • Michael Portillo • John Redwood • Malcolm Rifkind • Gillian Shephard • Lord Waddington • Lord Wakeham • William Waldegrave • George Young Also attended meetings Norman Fowler • Alastair Goodlad • Richard Ryder

David Michael Chaytor (born 3 August 1949^[2]) is a former British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bury North from 1997 to 2010. He was the first member of Parliament to be sentenced following the United Kingdom Parliamentary expenses scandal of 2009.

On 2 June 2009, he announced that he would not be standing for Parliament at the next general election.^[3][4] On 3 December 2010 he pleaded guilty to charges of false accounting in relation to Parliamentary expenses claims and he was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment on 7 January 2011. Chaytor was released from prison on 26 May 2011 under the conditions of Home Detention Curfew.

Education[link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (January 2011)

David Chaytor was born in Bury and was educated at the East Ward Primary School and the Bury Grammar School, both in the town. He later attended the University of London where he was awarded a BA degree in 1970, Huddersfield Polytechnic, the University of Bradford, and he then qualified as a teacher in 1976 at the University of Leeds. He then returned to the University of London to finish his Masters (MPhil) degree in philosophy in 1979 and did further postgraduate work at the University of Bradford.

Early career[link]

He started work as a college lecturer in 1973, before being appointed as the senior staff tutor at the Manchester College of Arts and Technology^[5] in 1983. In 1990, he became the Head of Continuing Education at the same institute, where he remained until his election to parliament.^[6]

Political career[link]

Local council[link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (January 2011)

He was elected as a councillor on the Calderdale Borough Council in 1982 and served until 1997. He served as chairman of the Labour Group, and chairman of the Education, Economic Development, and Highways & Transportation Committees.

Parliament[link]

He contested the parliamentary constituency of Calder Valley at the 1987 General Election, but was defeated by 6,045 votes by the sitting Conservative MP Donald Thompson. He again contested Calder Valley at the 1992 General Election, at which he reduced Thompson's majority to 4,878. He had to cede the candidacy for Calder Valley because of an all women shortlist which selected Christine McCafferty. However, Chaytor contested the marginal seat of Bury North at the 1997 General Election which he won, defeating the then Social Security minister Alistair Burt by 7,866 votes. Chaytor made his maiden speech on 17 June 1997,^[7] where he talked of the humble Bury black pudding and Bury's most famous son, Robert Peel.

Chaytor’s main political interests were in the Environment, Education, Transport and Foreign Affairs. In the 1997–2001 Parliament he was a Member of the Environmental Audit Select Committee and in January 2000 he received the Green Ribbon award as best environmentalist backbencher in the House of Commons.^{[citation needed]}

He was a member of the Education & Skills Select Committee and the Environmental Audit Select Committee. He voted against the government on the privatisation of the National Air Traffic Services, and announced his intention to vote against the last clause of the Gambling Bill. Although he was educated under the Direct Grant system at Bury Grammar School, Chaytor is Chairman of Comprehensive Future,^[8] an organisation set up to end selection in British schools. He chaired the All Party Group for Intelligent Energy, and co-chaired the All Party Group for Further Education and Lifelong Learning. He was the Secretary of Globe UK, the British branch of the international network of environmentalist parliamentarians.

Suspension and subsequent retirement as an MP[link]

On 16 May 2009, following his self-referral to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards for claiming nearly £13,000 in mortgage expenses on a home on which the mortgage had already been paid, he was suspended by the Labour party, and on 2 June 2009 he announced that he would be stepping down as an MP at the next General Election. He was shortly after officially barred from standing for election as a Labour Party candidate by the Labour Party NEC's Special Endorsements Panel.^[3][4]

Conviction and sentencing[link]

On 5 February 2010, it was announced that he would be charged with offences under section 17 of the Theft Act 1968 relating to false accounting in relation to claims for Parliamentary expenses^[9] and on 27 May he and other politicians appeared at Southwark Crown Court for a preliminary hearing.^[10]

Following the failure of the attempt by the group to claim parliamentary privilege in the Court of Appeal, on 3 December 2010 he immediately pleaded guilty to three counts of false accounting involving approximately £18,000 and was released on bail until a sentencing hearing in January 2011. Among the charges was that he had claimed rent on a flat in Westminster which he in fact owned, using a fake tenancy agreement.^[11]

On 7 January 2011, Chaytor was sentenced by Mr Justice Saunders sitting in the Crown Court at Southwark to 18 months' imprisonment.^[12]

On 23 February 2011 it was announced that following legal advice, Chaytor was seeking leave to appeal against the length of his sentence.^[13] The application was heard by the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) on 22 March 2011 and refused on 23 March 2011, when the Lord Chief Justice described the behaviour referred to in the charges as "calculating", with the element of dishonesty being "not simply inflated claims for expenses, but rather the careful preparation of bogus claims".^[14] The primary grounds of appeal (and the main mitigation in the original hearing) - that according to the UK Parliament's 'Green Book' expenses guidelines, Chaytor's situation would have entitled him to claim more than he had done but on a different property - was dismissed as not relevant.

On 26 May 2011, Chaytor was released from prison under the normal HDC licensing conditions.

Personal life[link]

David Chaytor is married with three children.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: David Chaytor MP
• TheyWorkForYou.com - David Chaytor MP
• BBC Politics page

John Newton.

John Henry Newton (July 24, 1725 – December 21, 1807) was a British sailor and Anglican clergyman. Starting his career at sea, at a young age, he became involved with the slave trade for a few years. After experiencing a religious conversion, he became a minister, hymn-writer, and later a prominent supporter of the abolition of slavery. He was the author of many hymns, including "Amazing Grace" and "Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken."

Early life[link]

John Newton was born in Wapping, London, in 1725, the son of John Newton Sr., a shipmaster in the Mediterranean service, and Elizabeth Newton (née Seatclife), a Nonconformist Christian. His mother died of tuberculosis in July, 1732, about two weeks before his seventh birthday.^[1] Two years later, he went to live in Aveley, the home of his father's new wife.^[2] Newton spent two years at boarding school. At age eleven he went to sea with his father. Newton sailed six voyages before his father retired in 1742. Newton's father made plans for him to work at a sugar plantation in Jamaica. Instead, Newton signed on with a merchant ship sailing to the Mediterranean Sea.

In 1743, while on the way to visit some friends, Newton was captured and pressed into the naval service by the Royal Navy. He became a midshipman aboard HMS Harwich. At one point, Newton attempted to desert and was punished in front of the crew of 350. Stripped to the waist, tied to the grating, he received a flogging of one dozen lashes, and was reduced to the rank of a common seaman.^{[3][unreliable source?]}

Following that disgrace and humiliation, Newton initially contemplated suicide.^{[3][unreliable source?]} He recovered, both physically and mentally. Later, while Harwich was on route to India, he transferred to Pegasus, a slave ship bound for West Africa. The ship carried goods to Africa, and traded them for slaves to be shipped to England and other countries.

Newton proved to be a continual problem for the crew of Pegasus. They left him in West Africa with Amos Clowe, a slave dealer. Clowe took Newton to the coast, and gave him to his wife Princess Peye, an African duchess. Newton was abused and mistreated along with her other slaves. It was this period that Newton later remembered as the time he was "once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in West Africa."

Early in 1748 he was rescued by a sea captain who had been asked by Newton's father to search for him, he made it to freedom.^{[citation needed]}

In 1750 he married his childhood sweetheart, Mary Catlett, in St. Margaret's Church, Rochester^[4].

Spiritual conversion[link]

He sailed back to England in 1748 aboard the merchant ship Greyhound, which was carrying beeswax and dyer's wood, now referred to as camwood. During this voyage, he experienced a spiritual conversion. The ship encountered a severe storm off the coast of Donegal and almost sank. Newton awoke in the middle of the night and finally called out to God as the ship filled with water. After he called out, the cargo came out and stopped up the hole, and the ship was able to drift to safety. It was this experience which he later marked as the beginnings of his conversion to evangelical Christianity. As the ship sailed home, Newton began to read the Bible and other religious literature. By the time he reached Britain, he had accepted the doctrines of evangelical Christianity. The date was March 10, 1748, an anniversary he marked for the rest of his life. From that point on, he avoided profanity, gambling, and drinking. Although he continued to work in the slave trade, he had gained a considerable amount of sympathy for the slaves. He later said that his true conversion did not happen until some time later: "I cannot consider myself to have been a believer in the full sense of the word, until a considerable time afterwards."^[5]

Newton returned to Liverpool, England and, partly due to the influence of his father's friend Joseph Manesty, obtained a position as first mate aboard the slave ship Brownlow, bound for the West Indies via the coast of Guinea. During the first leg of this voyage, while in west Africa (1748–1749), Newton acknowledged the inadequacy of his spiritual life. While he was sick with a fever, he professed his full belief in Christ and asked God to take control of his destiny. He later said that this experience was his true conversion and the turning point in his spiritual life. He claimed it was the first time he felt totally at peace with God.

Still, he did not renounce the slave trade until later in his life. After his return to England in 1750, he made three further voyages as captain of the slave-trading ships Duke of Argyle (1750) and African (1752–1753 and 1753–1754). He only gave up seafaring and his active slave-trading activities in 1754, after suffering a severe stroke, but continued to invest his savings in Manesty's slaving operations."^[6]

Anglican priest[link]

In 1755 Newton became tide surveyor (a tax collector) of the port of Liverpool, again through the influence of Manesty. In his spare time, he was able to study Greek, Hebrew, and Syriac. He became well known as an evangelical lay minister. In 1757, he applied to be ordained as a priest in the Church of England, but it was more than seven years before he was eventually accepted.

Such was his frustration during this period of rejection that he also applied to the Methodists, Independents and Presbyterians, and applications were even mailed directly to the Bishops of Chester and Lincoln and the Archbishops of Canterbury and York.

Eventually, in 1764, he was introduced by Thomas Haweis to Lord Dartmouth, who was influential in recommending Newton to the Bishop of Chester, and who suggested him for the living of Olney, Buckinghamshire. On 29 April 1764 Newton received deacon's orders, and finally became a priest on June 17.

As curate of Olney, Newton was partly sponsored by an evangelical philanthropist, the wealthy Christian merchant John Thornton, who supplemented his stipend of £60 a year with £200 a year "for hospitality and to help the poor". He soon became well known for his pastoral care, as much as for his beliefs, and his friendship with Dissenters and evangelical clergy caused him to be respected by Anglicans and Nonconformists alike. He spent sixteen years at Olney, during which time so popular was his preaching that the church had a gallery added to accommodate the large numbers who flocked to hear him.

Some five years later, in 1772, Thomas Scott, later to become a biblical commentator and co-founder of the Church Missionary Society, took up the curacy of the neighbouring parishes of Stoke Goldington and Weston Underwood. Newton was instrumental in converting Scott from a cynical 'career priest' to a true believer, a conversion Scott related in his spiritual autobiography The Force Of Truth (1779).

In 1779 Newton was invited by John Thornton to become Rector of St Mary Woolnoth, Lombard Street, London, where he officiated until his death. The church had been built by Nicholas Hawksmoor in 1727 in the fashionable Baroque style. Newton then became one of only two evangelical preachers in the capital, and he soon found himself gaining in popularity amongst the growing evangelical party. He was a strong supporter of evangelicalism in the Church of England, and remained a friend of Dissenters as well as Anglicans.

Many young churchmen and others enquiring about their faith visited him and sought his advice, including such well-known social figures as the writer and philanthropist Hannah More, and the young Member of Parliament, William Wilberforce, who had recently undergone a crisis of conscience and religious conversion as he was contemplating leaving politics. Having sought his guidance, Newton encouraged Wilberforce to stay in Parliament and "serve God where he was".^[7][8]

In 1792, he was presented with the degree of Doctor of Divinity by the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University).

Abolitionist[link]

Newton in his later years

In 1788, 34 years after he had retired from the slave trade, Newton broke a long silence on the subject with the publication of a forceful pamphlet "Thoughts Upon the Slave Trade", in which he described the horrific conditions of the slave ships during the Middle Passage, and apologized for "a confession, which ... comes too late ... It will always be a subject of humiliating reflection to me, that I was once an active instrument in a business at which my heart now shudders." A copy of the pamphlet was sent to every MP, and sold so well that it swiftly required reprinting.^[9]

Newton became an ally of his friend William Wilberforce, leader of the Parliamentary campaign to abolish the slave trade. He lived to see the passage of the Slave Trade Act 1807.

Newton has been called hypocritical by some modern writers for continuing to participate in the slave trade while holding strong Christian convictions. Newton later came to believe that during the first five of his nine years as a slave trader he had not been a Christian in the full sense of the term: "I was greatly deficient in many respects ... I cannot consider myself to have been a believer in the full sense of the word, until a considerable time later."^[10] Although this "true conversion" to Christianity also had no immediate impact on his views on slavery, he eventually came to revise them.

Writer and hymnist[link]

The vicarage in Olney where Newton wrote the hymn that would become "Amazing Grace".

In 1767 William Cowper, the poet, moved to Olney. He worshipped in the church, and collaborated with Newton on a volume of hymns, which was eventually published as Olney Hymns in 1779. This work had a great influence on English hymnology. The volume included Newton's well-known hymns "Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken", "How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds!", "Let Us Love, and Sing, and Wonder", "Come, My Soul, Thy Suit Prepare", "Approach, My Soul, the Mercy-seat", and "Faith's Review and Expectation", which has come to be known by its opening phrase, "Amazing Grace".

Many of Newton's (as well as Cowper's) hymns are preserved in the Sacred Harp. He also contributed to the Cheap Repository Tracts.

Also, he wrote an anonymous autobiography called An Authentic Narrative of Some Remarkable And Interesting Particulars in the Life of ------ Communicated, in a Series of Letters, to the Reverend T. Haweiss.

Commemoration[link]

The gravestone of John Newton in Olney with the epitaph he penned.

• The town of Newton, Sierra Leone is named after John Newton. To this day there is a philanthropic link between John Newton's church of Olney and Newton, Sierra Leone.

• Newton was recognized for his hymns of longstanding influence by the Gospel Music Association in 1982 when he was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame.

Portrayals in literature, movies and other media[link]

• Newton is portrayed by actor John Castle in the 1975 British television miniseries "The Fight Against Slavery."
• Caryl Phillips's novel Crossing the River (1993) includes nearly verbatim excerpts from Newton's books.
• Newton is played by the actor Albert Finney in the 2006 film Amazing Grace, which highlights Newton's influence on William Wilberforce. Directed by Michael Apted, this film portrays Newton as a penitent who is haunted by the ghosts of 20,000 slaves.
• Newton is also played by the actor Nick Moran in another 2006 film The Amazing Grace. The creation of Nigerian director/writer/producer Jeta Amata, the film provides a refreshing and creative African perspective on the familiar "Amazing Grace" theme. Nigerian actors Joke Silva, Mbong Odungide, and Fred Amata (brother of the director) portray Africans who are captured and wrested away from their homeland by slave traders.
• African Snow, a play by Murray Watts, takes place in Newton's mind. It was first produced at the York Theatre Royal as a co-production with Riding Lights Theatre Company in April 2007 before transferring to the Trafalgar Studios in London's West End and a National Tour. Newton was played by Roger Alborough and Olaudah Equiano by Israel Oyelumade.

References[link]

The historical novel The Longing Season by Christine Schaub tells the story of the courtship of John Newton and Mary Catlett. It is second in the author’s Music of the Heart series.

Bibliography[link]

• Aitken, Jonathan, John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace (Crossway Books, 2007).
•  Bennett, H. L. (1885–1900). "Newton, John (1725-1807)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 
• Hindmarsh, D. Bruce. John Newton in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: University Press, 2004)
• Hochschild, Adam. Bury the Chains, The British Struggle to Abolish Slavery (Basingstoke: Pan Macmillan, 2005)
• Turner, Steve, "Amazing Grace: The Story of America's Most Beloved Song" (New York: Ecco/HarperCollins, 2002)
• Rediker, Marcus, The Slave Ship: A Human History (Viking, 2007)
• JohnNewton.org (2007)
• Bruner, Kurt & Ware, Jim, "Finding GOD in the Story of AMAZING GRACE" (Tyndale, 2007)

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: John Newton

Wikisource has original works written by or about: John Newton

• The John Newton Project
• Famous Quotes by John Newton
• Biography & Articles on Newton
• Amazing Grace: The Song, Author and their Connection to County Donegal in Ireland
• Amazing Grace: Some Early Tunes
• The Cowper and Newton Museum, Olney
• Thoughts Upon the African Slave Trade By John Newton. Published in 1788. Cornell University Library Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery Collection. {Reprinted by}Cornell University Library Digital Collections

Krzysztof Artur Oliwa (pronounced [ˈkʂɨʂtɔf ˈartur ɔˈliva]; born April 12, 1973) is a Polish former professional ice hockey player. He played as a left winger in the National Hockey League.

Playing career[link]

Nicknamed "The Polish Hammer" and from GKS Tychy youth system, Krzysztof Oliwa was drafted 65th overall in the 1993 NHL Entry Draft by the New Jersey Devils. An intimidating, physical player, he normally played the role of an enforcer and won the Stanley Cup with the Devils in 2000. Injuries prevented Oliwa from participating in the 2000 playoffs. However, Oliwa played enough regular season games to qualify to have his name inscribed on the Stanley Cup. He later played for the Columbus Blue Jackets, Pittsburgh Penguins, New York Rangers, Boston Bruins and the Calgary Flames. He signed with the New Jersey Devils as a free agent after the 2003–04 season. During the 2005–06 season, Oliwa was waived by the Devils and demoted to the minor league team in Albany. However, he chose not to report. He retired at the end of the 2005–06 season, taking the reins of the Polish National Hockey Program.

Career statistics[link]

External links[link]

• VIDEO Fights Oliwa
• Krzysztof Oliwa's career stats at The Internet Hockey Database

This is an article on the Canadian ice-hockey player Johnathan Aitken. For the similarly named former British politician, see Jonathan Aitken.

Johnathan James Aitken (born May 24, 1978) is a retired Canadian ice hockey defenceman.

Playing career[link]

Aitken was drafted 8th overall in the 1996 NHL Entry Draft by the Boston Bruins. He only played three games for them. For the 2000–01 season he went over to the Czech Republic to play for HC Sparta Praha. He returned to North America after only a year, and made it back to the NHL during the 2003–04 season with the Chicago Blackhawks, playing 41 games, scoring just one assist. He moved to the Austrian Hockey League for Klagenfurt AC for the 2006–07 season before retiring from hockey.

Career statistics[link]

References[link]

• 2005 NHL Official Guide & Record Book ISBN 0-920445-91-8

External links[link]

• Johnathan Aitken's career stats at The Internet Hockey Database