View source for John Stonehouse

{{short description|British politician and alleged spy for the Czechoslovak SR (1925–1988)}}
{{similar names|John Stonhouse (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2024}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2022}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| image               = File:11.12.67 Présentation officielle du Concorde (1967) - 53Fi1742 (John Stonehouse) (3x4 crop).jpg
| office              = Minister of Posts and Telecommunications
| primeminister       = [[Harold Wilson]]
| term_start          = 1 October 1969
| term_end            = 19 June 1970
| predecessor         = ''Himself'' (Postmaster General)
| successor           = [[Christopher Chataway]]
| office1             = [[Postmaster General of the United Kingdom|Postmaster General]]
| primeminister1      = Harold Wilson
| term_start1         = 1 July 1968
| term_end1           = 1 October 1969
| predecessor1        = [[Roy Mason]]
| successor1          = {{ubl|''Position abolished''| ''Himself'' (Minister, Posts and Telecommunications)|<hr> [[William Hall, 2nd Viscount Hall|The 2nd Viscount Hall]] (Chairman, Post Office)}}
| parliament2         = UK
| constituency_MP2    = [[Walsall North]]
| term_start2         = 28 February 1974
| term_end2           = 27 August 1976
| predecessor2        = [[William Wells (1908–1990)|William Wells]]
| successor2          = [[Robin Hodgson]]
| constituency_MP3    = [[Wednesbury (UK Parliament constituency)|Wednesbury]]
| term_start3         = 28 February 1957
| term_end3           = 8 February 1974
| predecessor3        = [[Stanley Evans]]
| successor3          = ''Constituency abolished''
| birth_name          = John Thomson Stonehouse
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1925|7|28|df=y}}<ref name="DNB"/>
| birth_place         = [[Southampton, Hampshire]], England
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1988|4|14|1925|7|28|df=y}}
| death_place         = [[Totton]], Hampshire, England
| party               = [[Labour Co-operative]] {{avoid wrap|(1941–1976)}}<br/>[[English National Party|English National]] (1976)<br/>[[Social Democratic Party (UK)|SDP]] (1981–1988)<br/>[[Liberal Democrats (UK)|Liberal Democrats]] (1988)
| otherparty          = 
| alma_mater          = [[London School of Economics]]
| spouse              = {{ubl|{{marriage|Barbara Smith|1948|1978|reason=div}}|{{marriage|Sheila Buckley<br>|1981}}}}
| children            = 4
| caption             = Stonehouse in 1967
}}
'''John Thomson Stonehouse''' (28 July 1925{{spaced ndash}}14 April 1988) was a British [[Labour and Co-operative Party]] politician, businessman and minister who was a member of the [[Cabinet of the United Kingdom|Cabinet]] under [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]] [[Harold Wilson]]. He is remembered for his unsuccessful attempt at faking his own death in 1974. It is alleged that Stonehouse had been an agent for [[StB|Czechoslovak military intelligence]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Andrew |first=Christopher |url=https://archive.org/details/defenceofrealmau0000andr/page/708/mode/2up |title=The Defence of the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5 |publisher=Penguin |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-713-99885-6 |location=London |page=708}}</ref>

==Early life and education==
John Thomson Stonehouse was born on 28 July 1925 in [[Southampton]],<ref name="DNB" /> the second son and youngest of four children of [[Post Office (United Kingdom)|Post Office]] engineer and later dockyard engine-fitter William Mitchell Stonehouse, and Rosina Marie (née Taylor).<ref>{{Cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-39863|title=Stonehouse, John Thomson (1925–1988), politician and confidence trickster|year=2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/39863 }}</ref>{{sfn|Stonehouse|2021|p=18}}<ref name="JSprison">{{cite web |title=John Stonehouse prison treatment |url=http://bufvc.ac.uk/tvandradio/lbc/index.php/segment/0009600089013 |access-date=12 May 2016 |publisher=British Universities Film & Video Council}}</ref> His father was local secretary of his [[trade union]];<ref>The Politico's Book of the Dead, Iain Dale, Politico's, 2003, p. 90</ref><ref>A Tangled Web: Sex Scandals in British Politics and Society, Harford Montgomery Hyde, Little, Brown Book Group Ltd, 1987, p. 312</ref> Stonehouse joined the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] at the age of sixteen. His mother, a former scullery maid, was the sixth female mayor of Southampton<ref name = "SDE">{{Citation | url = http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/4675564.The_secrets_of_Stonehouse/ | contribution = The Secrets of Stonehouse | title = Southern Daily Echo | place = UK | date = 11 October 2009}}.</ref> and a councillor on [[Southampton City Council]] from 1936 to 1970.<ref name="DNB">Nicholls, C. S. and Tom McNally (revised), [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/39863 "Stonehouse, John Thomson (1925–1988)"], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, September 2010. Retrieved 9 October 2022 {{subscription required}}</ref> 

Stonehouse was educated at Taunton's School (now [[Richard Taunton Sixth Form College]]), Southampton, and served as a [[Royal Air Force]] pilot from 1944 until 1946.<ref>{{cite web | url= https://www.expressandstar.com/news/politics/2023/01/02/the-incredible-life-of-john-stonehouse---a-once-high-flying-mp-who-faked-his-own-death/ | title= The incredible life of John Stonehouse – a once high-flying MP who faked his own death | work=Express & Star | date=2 January 2023 | access-date=10 January 2023}}</ref> He then attended the [[London School of Economics]] (LSE), where he read for a BSc (Econ.) degree.<ref name="DNB"/> During his time at the LSE, he was chairman of both the chess club<ref name="Crick">[[Joan Abse]] (ed.), ''My LSE'' (London: Robson Books, 1977), p. 157.</ref> and the Labour society.<ref>{{Who's Who | title=STONEHOUSE, John Thomson | id = U169517 | type = was | volume = 2022 | edition = online}}</ref> The political scientist [[Bernard Crick]], who was a contemporary of Stonehouse at university, recalls that his then nickname was 'Lord John', and that "his conversation was openly and restlessly about how best to get a [[Electoral district|parliamentary seat]]."<ref name="Crick"/>

==Political career==
Stonehouse stood unsuccessfully in [[Norwood (London County Council constituency)|Norwood]] at the [[1949 London County Council election]]. He was first elected as the [[Labour Co-operative]] [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] (MP) for [[Wednesbury (UK Parliament constituency)|Wednesbury]] in [[Staffordshire]] in a [[1957 Wednesbury by-election|1957 by-election]], having contested [[Twickenham (UK Parliament constituency)|Twickenham]] in [[1950 United Kingdom general election|1950]] and [[Burton (UK Parliament constituency)|Burton]] in [[1951 United Kingdom general election|1951]].

In February 1959, Stonehouse travelled to the [[Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland]] on a fact-finding tour in which he condemned the [[dominant minority|white minority]] government of [[Southern Rhodesia]] (now Zimbabwe). Speaking to the [[Southern Rhodesia African National Congress]], he encouraged indigenous Rhodesians to stand up for their rights and said they had the support of the [[British Labour Party]]. Stonehouse was promptly deported from Southern Rhodesia and banned from returning a year later.<ref>''Keesing's Contemporary Archives'' Volume XII, (April 1959) p. 16774</ref>

Stonehouse served as a junior minister of aviation, where he was involved in the [[British Overseas Airways Corporation]]'s order of [[Boeing 707]] aircraft from the United States, against his own recommendation that they should buy the Super [[Vickers VC10]], a British-made aircraft. This led to accusations by Stonehouse against colleagues about the reasons for the decision. In March 1968, Stonehouse negotiated an agreement providing a framework for the long-term development of technological co-operation between Britain and [[Czechoslovak Socialist Republic|Czechoslovakia]] providing for the exchange of specialists and information, facilities for study and research in technology, and such other forms of industrial co-operation which might be agreed.<ref>''Keesing's Contemporary Archives'', Volume 14, (March 1968) p. 22619</ref>

Stonehouse's rise continued while in the [[Colonial Office]], and in 1967 he became [[Minister for Technology]] under Wilson. He later served as [[United Kingdom Postmaster General|Postmaster General]] until the position was abolished by the [[Post Office Act 1969]]. As Minister of Posts and Telecommunications in 1970, Stonehouse oversaw the controversial [[radio jamming|jamming]] of the [[offshore radio]] station [[Radio North Sea International]]. When Labour was defeated at the [[1970 United Kingdom general election|1970 general election]], he was not appointed to the [[Shadow Cabinet]].

When the Wednesbury constituency was abolished in 1974, Stonehouse stood for and was elected to the nearby [[Walsall North]] constituency in the [[February 1974 United Kingdom general election|February general election]]. With Labour a [[minority government]], another election was called in September, and Stonehouse was re-elected with an increased majority of nearly 16,000 in the [[October 1974 United Kingdom general election|October election]], just six weeks before his disappearance. Stonehouse's last Parliamentary contribution before his disappearance was at [[Prime Minister's Questions]] on 14 November 1974, a few days before leaving for [[Miami, Florida]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1974/nov/14/social-contract#S5CV0881P0_19741114_HOC_133 | title=SOCIAL CONTRACT (Hansard, 14 November 1974) }}</ref>

==Spy allegations==
Stonehouse allegedly began spying for Czechoslovakia in 1962. In a meeting with [[Harold Wilson]] in 1969, Stonehouse was informed of assertions that he was a [[StB|Czechoslovak secret service]] agent; the informant was a defector from the Czechoslovak secret service, who had been debriefed by the US security services.{{sfn|Hayes|2021|p=71}} At that time, Stonehouse successfully defended himself.<ref>{{Cite news | place = UK | first = James | last =  Meikie | url = https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/oct/05/three-labour-mps-history-mi5 | title = MI5 suspects: John Stonehouse, Bernard Floud and Will Owen | newspaper = The Guardian | date = 5 October 2009}}.</ref> In 2009, the spy allegation was substantiated in the official history of [[MI5]], ''[[The Defence of the Realm]]'' (2009) by Cambridge historian [[Christopher Andrew (historian)|Christopher Andrew]].<ref>{{cite news |first=Richard |last=Norton-Taylor |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/oct/05/politicians-soviet-agents-mi5-book |title=MI5 monitored union and CND leaders with ministers' backing, book reveals |newspaper=The Guardian |date= 5 October 2009}}</ref> In December 2010, it was revealed that [[Margaret Thatcher]] had agreed to cover up revelations that Stonehouse had been a Czechoslovak spy in 1980, as there was insufficient evidence to bring him to trial.<ref name="Travis">{{Cite news | place = UK |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/dec/30/margaret-thatcher-spying-john-stonehouse | title = Margaret Thatcher in cover-up after Czech spy exposed John Stonehouse | newspaper = The Guardian; Politics | date = 30 December 2010 |first=Alan |last=Travis}}.</ref> Until the 2012 exposure of [[Ray Mawby]], briefly a member of a [[Conservative Party (United Kingdom)|Conservative]] government,<ref>Gordon Corera  [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18617168 "Tory MP Raymond Mawby sold information to Czech spies"], BBC News, 28 June 2012</ref> Stonehouse was the only Minister known to have been an agent for the former [[Eastern bloc]].

==Business interests==
Having lost his ministerial salary in 1970, Stonehouse set up various companies in an attempt to supplement his salary as an MP. By 1974 most of these companies were facing financial trouble, and Stonehouse had resorted to deceptive [[creative accounting]]. Aware that the [[Department of Trade and Industry (United Kingdom)|Department of Trade and Industry]] was looking at his affairs, Stonehouse decided that his best choice would be to flee the country. Secret government documents, declassified in 2005, indicate that Stonehouse spent months rehearsing his new identity as 'Joseph Markham', the deceased husband of a constituent.<ref name=":0">{{cite news|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4564226.stm |publisher=[[BBC News]] |title=MP planned fake death for months |date=29 December 2005 |access-date=5 August 2023}}.</ref>

== Disappearance ==
Stonehouse maintained the pretence of normality until he faked his death on 20 November 1974, leaving a pile of clothes on a beach in Miami to make it appear that he had suffered a fatal misadventure while swimming.<ref name=":0" /> Stonehouse was presumed dead, and [[List of premature obituaries|obituaries]] were published in British newspapers despite the fact that no corpse had been found. In reality, Stonehouse was ''en route'' to Australia, some {{convert|9000|mi}} away, hoping to set up a new life with his [[mistress (lover)|mistress]] and secretary, Sheila Buckley.<ref name=":0" />

Using [[false identities]], Stonehouse set about transferring large sums of money between banks as a further means of covering his tracks. Under the name of 'Clive Mildoon', he deposited [[A$]]21,500 in cash at the [[Bank of New Zealand]]. The teller who handled the money later spotted 'Mildoon' at the [[Bank of New South Wales]]. Inquiries led the teller to learn that the money was in the name of 'Joseph Markham', and he informed the local police. Stonehouse visited [[Copenhagen]] with Buckley around this time and returned to Australia unaware that he was now under surveillance. The Australian police initially suspected him of being [[Lord Lucan]], who had disappeared a fortnight before Stonehouse, following the murder of his children's nanny. They contacted [[Scotland Yard]], requesting pictures of both Lucan and Stonehouse. On his arrest, the police instructed Stonehouse to pull down his trousers in an attempt to establish whether or not he was Lucan, who had a {{convert|6|in|adj=on}} scar on the inside of his right thigh.<ref>{{Citation |title=History's greatest scandals: shocking stories of powerful people |first=Edward 'Ed' |last=Wright |year=2006}}</ref>

=== Arrest and aftermath ===
Stonehouse was arrested in [[Melbourne]] on 24 December 1974.<ref>{{cite book |last=Robertson |first=Geoffrey |title=The Justice Game |year=1999 |publisher=Vintage |location=London|isbn= 978-0-09-958191-8 |pages=62–63}}</ref> He applied for the position of [[Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds]] while still in Australia (one of the [[Resignation from the British House of Commons|ways for an MP to resign]]), but decided not to sign the papers. On 17 July 1975, Stonehouse was [[extradited]] to the UK, escorted by Scotland Yard officers.{{sfn|Stonehouse|2021|p=204}} He was remanded in [[Brixton Prison]] until August 1975 when he was released on [[bail]]. Stonehouse continued to serve as an MP; on 20 October 1975 he made a personal statement to the [[House of Commons (United Kingdom)|House of Commons]], stating his reasons for his disappearance, his first Parliamentary oration since his disappearance almost a year earlier:<ref>{{cite web |last1=Stonehouse |first1=John |title=Personal Statement |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1975/oct/20/personal-statement#S5CV0898P0_19751020_HOC_238 |website=Hansard |access-date=4 January 2023 |date=20 October 1975}}</ref>

{{Blockquote| The explanation for the extraordinary and bizarre conduct in the second half of last year is found in the progressions towards the complete mental breakdown which I suffered. This breakdown was analysed by an eminent psychiatrist in Australia and was described by him as psychiatric suicide. It took the form of the repudiation of the life of Stonehouse because that life had become absolutely intolerable to him. A new parallel personality took over—separate and apart from the original man, who was resented and despised by the parallel personality for the ugly humbug and sham of the recent years of his public life. The parallel personality was uncluttered by the awesome tensions and stresses suffered by the original man, and he felt, as an ordinary person, a tremendous relief in not carrying the load of anguish which had burdened the public figure.<br>The collapse and destruction of the original man came about because his idealism in his political life had been utterly frustrated and finally destroyed by the pattern of events, beyond his control, which had finally overwhelmed him.}}

Although unhappy with the situation, the Labour Party did not expel Stonehouse as their parliamentary majority was very narrow. On 4 April 1976 Stonehouse attended a [[St George's Day]] festival hosted by the [[English National Party]]; he later confirmed he had joined the party, making Labour a [[minority government]].

Stonehouse conducted his own [[defense (law)|defence]] on twenty-one charges of [[fraud]], [[theft]], [[forgery]], [[conspiracy (crime)|conspiracy]] to defraud, causing a false police investigation and [[wasting police time]]. His trial lasted 68 days. On 6 August 1976, Stonehouse was convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison for fraud, and received a criminal [[bankruptcy]] order.<ref name=":0" />{{sfn|Hayes|2021|p=343}} He agreed to resign as a [[Privy Counsellor]] on 17 August 1976,<ref>{{Citation |  url = https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/46994/page/11347 | title = Announcement from the Privy Council Office | work = The London Gazette | date = 19 August 1976 |page=11347}}</ref> becoming one of only three people to resign from the Privy Council in the 20th century. Stonehouse tendered his resignation via the Chiltern Hundreds route from the House of Commons on 27 August 1976.<ref>{{Citation |  url = https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/47003/page/11917 | title = Announcement from the Commons Speaker | work = The London Gazette | date = 31 August 1976 |page=11917 }}</ref> The [[1976 Walsall North by-election|subsequent by-election]] was won by [[Robin Hodgson]], a Conservative. In October 1976, Stonehouse was declared bankrupt.

Stonehouse was imprisoned in [[HM Prison Wormwood Scrubs]]. On 30 June 1977, the [[House of Lords]] refused his [[Judicial functions of the House of Lords#Appeals|appeal]] against five of the charges of which he was convicted. While he was in prison, Stonehouse complained that the prison workshop where he worked played a pop music radio station.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.expressandstar.com/series/true-crime/2022/12/15/the-cabinet-minister-john-stonehouse/|title = The Cabinet Minister: John Stonehouse |work = Express & Star |date = 15 December 2022 |last=Andrews |first=Mark}}</ref> He made acquaintance with [[Moors murders|Moors murderer]] [[Ian Brady]], and the pair played [[chess]] together until Brady was transferred elsewhere.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39925965|title=Ian Brady letters: Inside the mind of the Moors Murderer |work = BBC News |date = 16 May 2017 |last=Gould |first=Peter}}</ref> When his health deteriorated, Stonehouse was moved to [[HM Prison Blundeston]] in [[Suffolk]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/people/my-father-john-stonehouse-mp-faked-own-death-spy-historians-say-1110532|title= 'My father was John Stonehouse, the MP who faked his own death – but he wasn't a spy, whatever historians say' |work = i |date = 20 July 2021 |last=Smallman |first=Etan}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4564226.stm|title= MP planned fake death for months |work = BBC News |date = 29 December 2005}}</ref>

==Health problems==
On 14 August 1979, Stonehouse was released early because of good behaviour and because he had suffered three [[heart attacks]]; he had the first on 18 April 1977, a second one four days later, and a massive heart attack on 13 August 1978. On 6 September 1978, Stonehouse suffered a [[coronary ischemia]] attack which required him to spend three days in hospital. He underwent [[open heart surgery]] on 7 November 1978 which lasted for six hours.<ref>''The Guardian'' pp. 15–17.  November 1978</ref>

==After release==
[[File:John Stonehouse after a pilot episode of After Dark.jpg|thumb|upright|At a party for ''[[After Dark (TV series)|After Dark]]'' in 1987]]
From January 1980, Stonehouse was a volunteer fundraiser for the [[East London]]-based charity, [[Community Links]]. He joined the [[Social Democratic Party (UK)|Social Democratic Party]] (SDP), which later amalgamated with the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]] to become the [[Liberal Democrats (UK)|Liberal Democrats]]. In June 1980, he was discharged from bankruptcy. 

Stonehouse wrote three novels and made numerous television and radio appearances during the rest of his life, mostly in connection with discussing his disappearance. In June 1986 he appeared on TVS's ''Regrets'' programme<ref>{{Cite web|title=Regrets?[25/6/86] (1986)|url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b7607c4f8|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180422163822/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b7607c4f8|url-status=dead|archive-date=22 April 2018|access-date=24 March 2021|website=BFI|language=en}}</ref> and in December that year on the [[BBC Radio 4]] interview programme ''In The Psychiatrist's Chair'' with [[Anthony Clare]].

==Personal life==
{{needs more sources|section|date=December 2018}}
Stonehouse married Barbara Joan Smith in 1948; the marriage produced three children. After their divorce in 1978, Stonehouse married his mistress, Sheila Elizabeth Buckley (née Black),<ref>{{Cite web|title=Sheila E Black in 1969 |url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=BMD/M/1969/3/AO/000179/080 |access-date=7 February 2023 |website=www.findmypast.co.uk}}</ref> in [[Hampshire]] on 31 January 1981; the marriage produced one child.

Stonehouse's daughter Julia published an account of her father's life in 2021 entitled ''John Stonehouse, My Father: The True Story of the Runaway MP''; it was released almost simultaneously with a book called ''Stonehouse: Cabinet Minister, Fraudster, Spy'', by criminal defence solicitor Julian Hayes, who is Stonehouse's great nephew through the author's father, Michael Hayes, who was the MP's nephew and his lawyer.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-57942759|title=John Stonehouse: Bizarre tale of the MP who faked his own death|work=BBC News|date=27 July 2021}}</ref> Julia has an eponymous website in which she questions the veracity of other books and broadcasts about her father.

==Death==
On 25 March 1988, Stonehouse collapsed on set during an edition of ''[[Central Weekend]]'' in [[Birmingham]] during the filming of a programme about [[missing people]]. He was given emergency medical treatment at the studio and an ambulance was called. He was diagnosed as having suffered a minor heart attack and kept in [[City Hospital, Birmingham|the city's general hospital]] overnight.{{sfn|Stonehouse|2021}}{{page needed|date=March 2022}} Just under three weeks later, early on 14 April, he suffered a [[Myocardial infarction|massive heart attack]] at his house at Dales Way in [[Totton]], Hampshire, where he had moved six months earlier, having lived in London since his release from prison, his last address there having been at 20 Shirland Mews.<ref>{{Citation | url = http://www.findmypast.com/BirthsMarriagesDeaths.jsp | title = Find My Past | contribution = Deaths, England and Wales, 1984–2006 | access-date = 13 January 2009 | archive-date = 20 February 2009 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090220163304/http://www.findmypast.com/BirthsMarriagesDeaths.jsp | url-status = dead }}</ref> This time Stonehouse could not be saved and he died in hospital at 2:30{{nbsp}}am, aged 62.

Stonehouse was cremated in [[Bassett Green]], [[Southampton]], on 22 April 1988.<ref>''Glasgow Herald''.  15 April 1988</ref> The former MP [[Bruce Douglas-Mann]] paid tribute. In 1989, his fourth novel was published posthumously.<ref>{{Cite news|date=27 December 2014|title=Wills archive: Millions of documents available online|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-30609527|access-date=24 March 2021}}</ref>

==Television series==
{{Main|Stonehouse (TV series)}}
The British [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]]  series ''[[Stonehouse (TV series)| Stonehouse]]'', a dramatisation of Stonehouse's story, was first broadcast from 2 to 4 January 2023. The series starred [[Matthew Macfadyen]] and [[Keeley Hawes]] and was directed by [[Jon S. Baird]] from a script by [[John Preston (English author)|John Preston]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=3 January 2023 |title=Stonehouse story 'far more fascinating' than TV drama suggests, relative says |url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/jan/03/stonehouse-story-far-more-fascinating-than-tv-drama-suggests-relative-says |access-date=3 January 2023 |website=The Guardian}}</ref>

==Books by John Stonehouse==
===Non-fiction===
* ''Prohibited Immigrant'' (Bodley Head, 1960)<br>Stonehouse's account of his 1959 African tour, which culminated in his deportation from [[Southern Rhodesia]].
* ''Death of an Idealist'' (W. H. Allen, 1975)
* ''My Trial'' (Wyndham, 1976)

===Fiction===
* ''Ralph'' (Jonathan Cape, 1982)
* ''The Baring Fault'' (Calder, 1986)
* ''Oil on the Rift'' (Robert Hale, 1987)
* ''Who Sold Australia?'' (Robert Hale, 1989)

== See also ==
* ''[[The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin]]''

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

=== Further reading ===
*{{Cite book| title=Stonehouse: Cabinet Minister, Fraudster, Spy | first=Julian |last=Hayes |year=2021 | publisher=Little, Brown Book Group Limited |isbn=978-1-4721-4654-0}}
*{{Cite book| title=John Stonehouse, My Father: The True Story of the Runaway MP | first=Julia |last=Stonehouse |year=2021 | publisher=Icon Books, Limited |isbn=978-178578-741-6}}

== External links ==
*{{Hansard-contribs | mr-john-stonehouse | John Stonehouse }}
*{{NPG name}}

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{{s-bef|before=[[Stanley Evans]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=Member of Parliament for [[Wednesbury (UK Parliament constituency)|Wednesbury]]|years=[[1957 Wednesbury by-election|1957]] – [[February 1974 United Kingdom general election|1974]]}}
{{s-non|reason=Constituency abolished}}
{{s-bef|before=[[William Wells (1908–1990)|William Wells]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=Member of Parliament for [[Walsall North]]|years=[[February 1974 United Kingdom general election|1974]]–[[1976 Walsall North by-election|1976]]}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Robin Hodgson]]}}
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{{s-bef|before=[[Roy Mason]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Postmaster General of the United Kingdom|Postmaster General]]|years=1968–1969}}
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