David Ennals, Baron Ennals
British politician and campaigner for human rights (1922-1995)
David Hedley Ennals, Baron Ennals, (19 August 1922 – 17 June 1995) was a British Labour Party politician and campaigner for human rights. He served as Secretary of State for Social Services from 1976 to 1979.
Early life and military career
Born in 1922 in Walsall, Staffordshire to Arthur Ford Ennals and his wife Jessie Edith Taylor, Ennals was educated at Queen Mary's Grammar School, Walsall and the Loomis Institute in Windsor, Connecticut on a one-year student exchange scholarship. In 1939 he was a reporter on the Walsall Observer.
In Wolverhampton on his nineteenth birthday, 19 August 1941, he enlisted in the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) and joined 9th Training Battalion (Drivers) at Alfreton. Selected for officer training, he was posted to 162 Officer Cadet Training Unit at Lanark in March 1942.
He was commissioned into the Reconnaissance Corps in September 1942 and posted to the 3rd Regiment Reconnaissance Corps (NF) (3 Recce), part of the 3rd Infantry Division. His service number was 245228. Landing in Normandy on D-Day, 6 June 1944, Lieutenant Ennals commanded a Contact Detachment providing wireless links between units. On the night of 28/29 June 1944 he went on a night patrol with 1st Battalion Royal Norfolk Regiment who were holding the position to the right of 3 Recce to the north of Caen.
The public source identifies “David Ennals, Baron Ennals” as british politician and campaigner for human rights (1922-1995). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around David, Ennals and Baron.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5233398. VIAF identifies the subject as 9650149068558065730004. The Library of Congress control number is n90615538. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1922, 1995, 1976 and 1979.
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This entry incorporates text from “David Ennals, Baron Ennals” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.