Horace King, Baron Maybray-King

Who was Horace King, Baron Maybray-King?

Horace Maybray King, Baron Maybray-King, PC, was a British politician who served as a Labour Member of Parliament from 1950 until 1970 before becoming a life peer. Following the death of Harry Hylton-Foster in September 1965, King, who had served as deputy speaker for ten months, became the Speaker of the House of Commons. He was the first person from the Labour Party ever to hold this position.

Horace King was born in Grangetown near Middlesbrough. His father John William King was an insurance salesman and Methodist local preacher. He was educated at Stockton Secondary School, Stockton-on-Tees, from 1912 to 1917 and never lost touch with these local roots. Horace attended King's College London and graduated with a first-class Bachelor's degree in English. Upon graduating in 1922 Mr King worked as a teacher in Taunton's school in Southampton. He became head of the English department in 1927. He left in 1947 to become headteacher of Regent's Park Secondary School in 1947. While working as a teacher, King studied part-time for his Ph.D. His thesis was on the Folios of Shakespeare. He received his doctorate from King's College London in 1940. He had been excused from military service during World War II due to a duodenal ulcer. He and his family - first wife Victoria Florence and daughter Margaret - and Taunton's school were evacuated to Bournemouth from Southampton in 1940. Among the many pupils was 15-year-old Benny Hill. Dr King was always a keen musician - piano, piano-accordion and organ - and during the 2nd World War he formed various concert parties - "The V Concert Party" was one - which toured the smaller outlying military bases and entertained troops not often reached by ENSA. He also raised funds by organising concerts to "buy" Spitfires and send aid to Russia. He is believed to have instigated fund raising in Hampshire by letters he wrote to the Hampshire Chronicle in July and August 1940. His "Spitfire Song" was recorded by Joe Loss and his Orchestra. He and a teacher colleague also were the first to translate "Lili Marlene" but were too slow to get their version to the song-publishing market.