Richard Crossman
Richard Howard Stafford Crossman OBE (15 December 1907 – 5 April 1974), sometimes known as Dick Crossman, was a British Labour Party politician and author who was a Cabinet Minister under Harold Wilson. A prominent socialist intellectual, he became one of the Labour Party's leading Zionists and anti-communists. Late in his life, Crossman was editor of the New Statesman, but is best known today for his posthumously published three-volume Diaries of a Cabinet Minister.
Early life
Crossman was born in either Cropredy, Oxfordshire, or Bayswater, London, the son of Helen Elizabeth (Howard) and Charles Stafford Crossman, a judge, and grew up in Buckhurst Hill, Essex. He was educated at Twyford School, and at Winchester College, where he became head boy. He excelled academically and on the football field. He studied Classics at New College, Oxford, receiving a double first and becoming a fellow in 1931. He taught philosophy at the university before becoming a lecturer for the Workers' Educational Association. He was a councillor on Oxford City Council, and became head of the Labour group in 1935.