Fred Mulley

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British politician

title: "Fred Mulley" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1918-births", "1995-deaths", "military-personnel-from-warwickshire", "alumni-of-christ-church,-oxford", "alumni-of-st-catharine's-college,-cambridge", "alumni-of-university-of-london-worldwide", "alumni-of-the-university-of-london", "association-of-professional,-executive,-clerical-and-computer-staff-sponsored-mps", "british-army-personnel-of-world-war-ii", "british-secretaries-of-state-for-education", "chairs-of-the-labour-party-(uk)", "labour-party-(uk)-mps-for-english-constituencies", "labour-party-(uk)-life-peers", "members-of-the-privy-council-of-the-united-kingdom", "ministers-in-the-wilson-governments,-1964–1970", "people-educated-at-warwick-school", "secretaries-of-state-for-defence-(uk)", "secretaries-of-state-for-transport-(uk)", "uk-mps-1950–1951", "uk-mps-1951–1955", "uk-mps-1955–1959", "uk-mps-1959–1964", "uk-mps-1964–1966", "uk-mps-1966–1970", "uk-mps-1970–1974", "uk-mps-1974", "uk-mps-1974–1979", "uk-mps-1979–1983", "worcestershire-regiment-soldiers", "world-war-ii-prisoners-of-war-held-by-germany", "british-world-war-ii-prisoners-of-war", "life-peers-created-by-elizabeth-ii"] description: "British politician" topic_path: "history" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Mulley" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary British politician ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox officeholder"]

Field	Value
honorific-prefix	The Right Honourable
name	The Lord Mulley
honorific-suffix	PC
image	Fred Mulley.PNG
caption	Mulley in 1967, when a junior defence minister
office	Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
leader	James Callaghan
term_start	4 May 1979
term_end	14 June 1979
predecessor	Ian Gilmour
successor	William Rodgers
office1	Secretary of State for Defence
primeminister1	James Callaghan
term_start1	10 September 1976
term_end1	4 May 1979
predecessor1	Roy Mason
successor1	Francis Pym
office2	Secretary of State for Education and Science
primeminister2	Harold Wilson
James Callaghan
term_start2	5 March 1975
term_end2	10 September 1976
predecessor2	Reg Prentice
successor2	Shirley Williams
office3	Minister of Transport
primeminister3	Harold Wilson
term_start3	7 March 1974
term_end3	5 March 1975
predecessor3	John Peyton (Transport Industries)
successor3	John Gilbert
office4	Member of Parliament
for Sheffield Park
term_start4	23 February 1950
term_end4	13 May 1983
predecessor4	Thomas Burden
successor4	Constituency abolished
birth_name	Frederick William Mulley
birth_date
birth_place	Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England
death_date
death_place	Lambeth, England
party	Labour
alma_mater	University of London
Christ Church, Oxford
St Catharine's College, Cambridge
allegiance	United Kingdom
branch	[[File:Flag of the British Army.svg
rank	Sergeant
unit	Worcestershire Regiment
battles	World War II
::

Early life

Mulley was born in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, the son of William Mulley, a general labourer from The Fens, and his wife Mary (née Boiles), a domestic servant. He attended Warwick School on a scholarship between 1929 and 1936, leaving with the higher school certificate. As his father, who by this time was unemployed, could not afford to support him through university, Mulley instead became an accounts clerk under the national health insurance scheme. He served in the Worcestershire Regiment during the Second World War, reaching the rank of sergeant, but was captured in 1940 and spent five years as a prisoner of war in Germany. During this time he obtained a BSc in economics from the University of London as an external student and became a chartered secretary.

At the end of the war, Mulley received an adult scholarship to Christ Church, Oxford, graduating with a first-class degree in politics, philosophy and economics in 1947. After a brief spell as an economics fellow at St Catharine's College, Cambridge (1948–50), he trained as a barrister, being called to the Bar in 1954.

Parliamentary career

Mulley had been a member of the Labour Party and the National Association of Clerks and Administrative Workers since 1936, and at the 1945 general election he unsuccessfully contested the constituency of Sutton Coldfield. He became Member of Parliament for Sheffield Park in 1950, a position he held until deselected by his local party prior to the 1983 general election, when his constituency disappeared in a redistribution of boundaries.

During a long career in politics Mulley held many ministerial positions, including Minister of Aviation (1965–67), Minister for Disarmament (1967–69), and Minister of Transport (1969–70, 1974–75). While at the Transport Ministry he believed it would be inappropriate to be seen to be a car driver; thus, although he owned an Austin Maxi, his wife was the sole user of it during this period.

In 1975 Harold Wilson brought him into the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Education and Science, and in 1976 became Secretary of State for Defence until the Labour Party's defeat at the 1979 general election.

Writing in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, former Cabinet minister Edmund Dell argued that Mulley was both a party loyalist of "unassailable" working-class credentials and a genuine Oxbridge intellectual, an unusual combination that made him valuable to Wilson and to Wilson's successor, James Callaghan.

House of Lords

Mulley did not seek re-election at the House of Commons in 1983 and was created a life peer as Baron Mulley, of Manor Park in the City of Sheffield on 30 January 1984, after which and he held a variety of directorial positions.

Legacy

A main road in the Lower Don Valley in Sheffield is named after him.

References

[[Edmund Dell. Dell, Edmund]], [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/58032 "Mulley, Frederick William, Baron Mulley (1918–1995)"], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, October 2008. Retrieved 7 January 2024. {{subscription required
[http://www.worcestershireregiment.com/wr.php?main=inc/pow_F_W_Mulley Worcestershire Regiment (29th/36th of Foot) Web site]
(5 October 1974). "Election special: {{as written". [[Autocar (magazine).
{{London Gazette. (2 February 1984)

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