Allan warren, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Robert Boothby, often known as Bob, later elevated to Baron Boothby in 1958, was a Tory politician and not a particularly successful one but I remember him always being on political programs in the 1960s along with the thinking man’s crumpet, Joan Bakewell (© Frank Muir I believe). I obviously didn’t think much because she never appealed to me. unlike Frank Muir who coined the phrase.
In the 1950s he advocated decriminalising homosexual acts between men. He had already had to resign for not declaring an interest in 1940 when he asked a question. There were many rumours that he was in fact a homosexual himself. Notwithstanding that he was alleged to have had a long affair with Harold Macmillan’s wife Dorothy. An early example of a bi-sexual.
His first wife was Diane Cavendish and the marriage lasted 2 years. His second wife was Wanda Senna, a Sardinian. His second cousin Ludovic Kennedy claimed Bob fathered three children by wives of other men and maybe more.
Despite all this he was rumoured to be homosexual which he denied. In 1963 he began an affair with a cat burglar whom he later employed as his chauffeur. This boy introduced him to the Kray twins who then allegedly supplied him with a string of young compliant boys.
There are also unsubstantiated rumours that a certain singer of those days was corrupted by Boothby and acquired a taste for young boys.
The Sunday Express got hold of the story but declined to report. The Sunday Mirror was not so reticent and reported the details but not the names. The names were filled in by the German magazine Stern. Boothby denied it all and threatened to sue the Mirror. The Mirror backed down, sacked the editor and paid £40,000 in an out of court settlement. Later documents showed that MI5 used the Krays to gather intelligence on establishment figures.
In 1932 during a visit to the Weimar Republic Boothby met Hitler and he returned convinced that Adolf had the unmistakeable hint of madness in his eyes. He subsequently became one of Churchill’s group of campaigners for rearmament.
© well_chuffed 2026
