23rd July: Michael Foot's birthday

On this date in 1913 Michael Foot, politician, Labour Party leader from 1980 83, was born. He would have been 101 today. 10 things you might not know about him.

This is an image from the Nationaal Archief,
the Dutch National Archives, and Spaarnestad.
 Photo donated in the context of a partnership program.

1. His middle name was Mackintosh.
2. His first job after graduation was as a shipping clerk in Birkenhead. The poverty and unemployment that he witnessed there influenced a change in his political views from liberal to socialist.
3. He first stood for Parliament at the age of 22, contesting Monmouth in 1935, but it was ten years later that he first won a seat, a first time Labour victory for Plymouth Devonport.
4. Foot was a journalist as well as a politician. Aneurin Bevan recommended him to Lord Beaverbrook as a writer for the Evening Standard, after Foot had resigned in principle from another publication because they'd sacked his boss. At the age of 28, Michael Foot was the editor of the Evening Standard.
5. Although he was a staunch republican, the Royal Family actually rather liked him and kept trying to give him honours, including a knighthood and a peerage, but he kept turning them down.
6. He was a chain smoker until 1963 when he was involved in a serious car accident, after which he gave up.
7. Foot was likened to Worzel Gummidge in the series of letters purported to have been written by Denis Thatcher to his fictional friend Bill in Private Eye.
8. From 1987 to 1992, he was the oldest sitting British MP.
9. He was the oldest registered player in the history of football at the age of 90. He was a passionate supporter of Plymouth Argyle Football Club, and for his 90th birthday, the club registered him as an honorary player and gave him the shirt number 90.
10. On his 93rd birthday, Michael Foot became the longest lived leader of a British political party, beating Lord Callaghan's record of 92 years, 364 days.