John Profumo

Who was John Profumo?

Brigadier John Dennis Profumo, CBE, informally known as Jack Profumo, was a British politician. The Profumo family is of Italian origin, and John Profumo held the title of 5th Baron Profumo in the nobility of the Kingdom of Sardinia. Although Profumo held an increasingly responsible series of political posts in the 1950s, he is best known for his involvement in a scandal involving Christine Keeler in 1963. The scandal, which became known as the Profumo affair, led to his resignation and withdrawal from politics, and it may have helped to topple the Conservative government of Harold Macmillan.

After his resignation, Profumo began to work as a volunteer cleaning toilets at Toynbee Hall, a charity based in the East End of London, and continued to work there for the rest of his life. Eventually, he volunteered as the charity's chief fundraiser. These charitable activities helped to restore the fallen politician's reputation; he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1975, and in 1995 was invited to Margaret Thatcher's 70th birthday dinner. He was a member of Boodle's club in St James's, London, from 1969 until his death.