Konni Zilliacus

Konni Zilliacus (13 September 1894 – 6 July 1967) was the Member of Parliament for Gateshead from 1945 until 1950, and for Manchester Gorton from 1955 until his death. He was a left-wing Labour Party politician. Zilliacus spoke nine languages fluently and international issues absorbed much of his energy, both as an official of the League of Nations between the wars, and as a member of the House of Commons in the post-war period. He was widely considered to have had communist sympathies, this led him into conflict with the Labour Party leadership and in 1949 he was expelled from the party. In 1950 he lost his seat in parliament, he was re-admitted by Labour in 1952, and returned to the Commons in 1955. Zilliacus campaigned for less spending on weapons. He was a founder member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and opposed the Vietnam War. His father was Konrad Viktor Zilliacus, a Finnish independence activist. Early life Zilliacus was born in Kobe, Japan, the son of exiled Finnish-nationalist Konrad Viktor (Konni) Zilliacus (1855–1924) and American-born Lilian McLaurin Grafe (1873–1938). He travelled the world with his parents until 1909, when they settled in England. Zilliacus then attended Bedales School in Hampshire, where he became friends with Josiah Clement Wedgwood's sons. He attended Yale University in the US, graduating first in his class in 1915.