Lewis Silkin, 1st Baron Silkin CH (14 November 1889 – 11 May 1972), was a British Labour Party

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 politician.

Silkin worked as a solicitor, before becoming a member of the London County Council

London County Council

London County Council was the principal local government body for the County of London, throughout its 1889–1965 existence, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today known as Inner London and was replaced by the Greater London Council...

 in 1925. He chaired the LCC Town Planning

Urban planning

Urban planning incorporates areas such as economics, design, ecology, sociology, geography, law, political science, and statistics to guide and ensure the orderly development of settlements and communities....

 and the Housing and Public Health Committees and was a member of the Central Housing Advisory Committee. He was elected as Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 (MP) for Peckham

Peckham (UK Parliament constituency)

Peckham was a borough constituency in South London which returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom...

 in 1936, and was a member of the Select Committee on National Expenditure. He was Minister of Town and Country Planning in the Government

Labour Government 1945-1951

The Labour Party came to power in the United Kingdom after their unexpected victory in the July 1945 general elections. Party leader Clement Attlee became Prime Minister and hastily replaced his predecessor Winston Churchill at the Potsdam Conference in late July. Ernest Bevin was Foreign Secretary...

 of Clement Attlee

Clement Attlee

Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, PC, FRS was a British Labour politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951, and as the Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955...

 from 1945 until he retired in 1950.

Silkin was raised to the peerage as Baron Silkin

Baron Silkin

Baron Silkin, of Dulwich in the County of London, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.The barony was created in 1950 for the solicitor and Labour politician Lewis Silkin. The peerage was disclaimed by both his eldest son, the second Baron, and the latter's nephew, the third Baron...

, of Dulwich

Dulwich

Dulwich is an area of South London, England. The settlement is mostly in the London Borough of Southwark with parts in the London Borough of Lambeth...

 in the County of London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, in 1950. He was further honoured in 1965 when he was made a Companion of Honour. Of his three sons, his eldest, Arthur, a civil servant, disclaimed the peerage. The other two, Samuel

Samuel Silkin, Baron Silkin of Dulwich

Samuel Charles Silkin, Baron Silkin of Dulwich, PC, QC was a British Labour Party politician and cricketer....

 and John

John Silkin

John Ernest Silkin, PC was an English Labour politician and solicitor.He was the third son of Lewis Silkin, 1st Baron Silkin, and a younger brother of Samuel Silkin, Baron Silkin of Dulwich. He was educated at Dulwich College, the University of Wales, and Trinity Hall at the University of...

, both followed him into Parliament and became members of the Privy Council

Privy Council of the United Kingdom

Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign in the United Kingdom...

 as well as Government Ministers. Although Samuel refused a knighthood as Attorney-General, he eventually became a life peer

Life peer

In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the Peerage whose titles cannot be inherited. Nowadays life peerages, always of baronial rank, are created under the Life Peerages Act 1958 and entitle the holders to seats in the House of Lords, presuming they meet qualifications such as...

 as Baron Silkin of Dulwich, of North Leigh

North Leigh

North Leigh is a village and civil parish about northeast of Witney in Oxfordshire. The parish includes the hamlet of East End, and since 1932 has also included the hamlet of Wilcote.-Early history:...

 in the County of Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....

.

Samuel's son Christopher also disclaimed the hereditary peerage on the death of his uncle Arthur in 2001, the first time a peerage has been disclaimed twice.