John Profumo

John Profumo (born January 30, 1915, London, England—died March 9, 2006, London, England) was a British politician and philanthropist who was the central character in one of the U.K.’s most spectacular sex scandals of the 20th century. The affair helped bring down Britain’s government and led Profumo to devote the rest of his life to charity.

Profumo was educated at Brasenose College, University of Oxford, and in 1940 he succeeded his father as fifth Baron Profumo of Italy. He served both as an army officer in World War II and as a member of Parliament (1940–63), where he was instrumental in bringing down the government of Neville Chamberlain in 1940. From 1952 Profumo held several parliamentary posts, and in 1960 he entered Prime Minister Harold Macmillan’s Conservative cabinet as secretary of state for war.

Profumo was one of Britain’s most glamorous politicians—handsome, wealthy, a personal friend of Queen Elizabeth II, and married to the popular actress Valerie Hobson. In early 1963, however, stories circulated that he had had an affair with a prostitute, Christine Keeler, who had also shared her favours with Yevgeny Ivanov, the Soviet military attaché in London. Profumo initially denied the stories when they became known, but he later admitted that they were true. His lie to Parliament, together with the obvious security dangers of the Ivanov association, forced his resignation in June from both the cabinet and Parliament and contributed to the fall of Macmillan’s government in October. Profumo’s wife stood by him, and he rebuilt his life by working for the next four decades, initially washing dishes, at Toynbee Hall (in London’s East End), which offered help and comfort for the city’s poor. He never spoke publicly about the “Profumo affair,” and in later life he was widely praised for having risen from disgrace to redemption. Because of his charity work, Profumo was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1975.