Clement Freud

Sir Clement Freud
Member of Parliament for North East Cambridgeshire
In office 9 June 1983 – 11 June 1987
Preceded by	Constituency Established
Succeeded by	Malcolm Moss
Member of Parliament for Isle of Ely
In office 26 July 1973 – 9 June 1983
Preceded by	Sir Harry Legge-Bourke
Succeeded by	Constituency Abolished
Born	24 April 1924(1924-04-24) Berlin, Germany
Died	15 April 2009 (aged 84) London, England, United Kingdom
Birth name	Clemens Raphael Freud
Nationality	British
Political party	Liberal
Spouse(s)	June Flewett (1950-2009) (his death)
Relations	Lucian Freud (brother) Ernst Ludwig Freud (father) Sigmund Freud (grandfather) (see Freud family)
Children	5 children
Occupation	Writer, politician, broadcaster, chef
Religion	Anglican
Known for	Just a Minute

Sir Clement Raphael Freud (24 April 1924 – 15 April 2009)^[1][2][3] was an English broadcaster, writer, politician and chef.

Early life

Freud was born in Berlin,^[2][4] the son of Jewish parents Ernst Ludwig Freud, an architect, and Lucie née Brasch. He was the grandson of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and the brother of artist Lucian Freud. His family fled to Britain from Nazi Germany, and his given name was anglicised from the original Clemens.^[5] He spent his later childhood in Hampstead where he attended the The Hall private preparatory school.^[6] He also attended Dartington Hall, a boarding school, and St Paul's School, an independent school in London.^[5]

During the Second World War Freud joined the Royal Ulster Rifles and served in the ranks. He acted as an aide to Field Marshal Montgomery. He worked at the Nuremberg Trials and in 1947 was commissioned as an officer.^[7] He married June Flewett (the inspiration for Lucy Pevensie in C. S. Lewis's children's series the Chronicles of Narnia)^[8] in 1950, and the couple had five children. June Flewett had taken the stage name Jill Raymond in 1944, and since Clement's knighthood has been Lady Freud.^[8]

Early career

Freud was one of Britain's first "celebrity chefs", having worked at the Dorchester Hotel, and went on to run his own restaurant in Sloane Square at a relatively young age. As well as this, he had various newspaper and magazine columns, and was later a familiar face on television for his appearance in a series of dog food commercials (at first for Minced Morsels, later Chunky Meat) in which he co-starred with a bloodhound called Henry (played by a number of dogs) which shared his trademark "hangdog" expression. In 1968 he wrote a children's book, Grimble. Six years later he wrote a sequel: Grimble at Christmas.

Whilst running a nightclub he met a newspaper editor who gave him a job as a sports journalist. From there he became an award-winning food and drink writer.^[9]

Political career

Prior to politics, Freud longed for (given his background and ancestry) a distinct occupation by which he could be acclaimed, rather than just being "the man off the telly"; his chance came in the 1973 Isle of Ely Parliamentary by-election, which he won. He was Liberal Member of Parliament for that constituency (later North East Cambridgeshire) from 1973 to 1987. On his election, he was hailed as the first Jewish Liberal MP for decades (though he had become Anglican at the time of his marriage^[10]). His departure from Parliament was marked by the award of a knighthood.

His autobiography, Freud Ego, recalls his election win, and shortly after, when asked by his wife June, "Why aren't you looking happier?", he wrote "It suddenly occurred to me that after nine years of fame I now had something solid about which to be famous... and cheered up no end."

During his time as a Member of Parliament, he visited China with a delegation of other MPs, including Winston S. Churchill, a grandson of the wartime leader of the same name. When Churchill was given the best room in the hotel, on account of his lineage, Freud (in a reference to his own famous forebear) declared it was the first time in his life that he had been "out-grandfathered".^[11]

Radio, music, academia

For many, Freud was best known as a panellist on the long-running Radio 4 show Just a Minute, in which his deadpan delivery was popular with audiences. In one edition during his turn to speak he said: "There’s not much doubt but we are in a period of great inflation. As the farmer said to me the other day, 'Apples are going up,' to which I replied, 'This would come as a severe blow to Sir Isaac Newton.'" He was a contestant on the first episode of Just a Minute in 1967 and took part in every series until his death. Freud was known to be fiercely competitive. Fellow participant Paul Merton reminisced, "Clement's way of playing the game was to win: that's what he cared about."^[12]

Freud performed a small monologue for the Wings 1973 album Band on the Run and appeared on the album's cover.

In 1974, he was elected Rector of the University of Dundee and served two three-year terms.

A generation later, in 2002, he was elected Rector of the University of St Andrews, beating feminist and academic Germaine Greer and local challenger Barry Joss, holding the position for one term.

In 2002 he also appeared as a panellist on UK comedy game-show, Shooting Stars where he didn't appear to "get" the humour of hosts Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer.^{[dubious – discuss]}

Family and hobbies

His son Matthew Freud was formerly married to Caroline Hutton, who was the second wife of Earl Spencer; he was then married to media magnate Rupert Murdoch's daughter Elisabeth. Sir Clement Freud's daughter Emma Freud, a broadcaster, is the partner of Richard Curtis, scriptwriter of Blackadder and Four Weddings and a Funeral. His nieces (by his painter brother Lucian) are fashion designer Bella Freud and writer Esther Freud. His brother, Stephen Freud, has closely guarded his privacy, with the exception of an interview he gave to The Daily Telegraph.^[13] The Freud family live in Walberswick in Suffolk.

Freud was a horse racing enthusiast, and was a columnist for the Racing Post newspaper. In his column in the paper, issue of 23 August 2006, he wrote about his election to Parliament in a by-election: "Politically, I was an anti-Conservative unable to join a Labour party hell-bent on nationalising everything that moved, so when a by-election occurred in East Anglia, where I lived and live, I stood as a Liberal and was fortunate in getting in. Ladbrokes quoted me at 33-1 in this three-horse contest, so Ladbrokes paid for me to have rather more secretarial and research staff than other MPs, which helped to keep me in for five parliaments."

Freud's enthusiasm for horse racing went as far as challenging Sir Hugh Fraser, then chairman of Harrods, to a horse race at Haydock in 1972. Freud trained for three months and lost some five stones for the event. Although Fraser, a country gentlemen, was seen as a much better prospect, the two made a bet for £1,000-a-side. Freud used the long odds to his advantage, however, and shrewdly placed a large side bet on himself. Freud won the race and made a great deal of money. His horse, Winter Fair, went on to win the Waterloo Hurdle at Aintree that same year. ^[14]

Freud also wrote articles reviewing facilities for spectators at racecourses in Britain, especially catering. This led him to receive the nickname "Sir Clement Food".^[15]

Freud died at his home on 15 April 2009, aged 84. His funeral was attended by a host of personalities from the media and entertainment industry including Bono, Richard Curtis, Stephen Fry, Paul Merton, Nicholas Parsons as well as several representatives from Westminster, such as Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Shadow Chancellor George Osborne and former Liberal party leader David Steel.^[16] He was survived by his wife of 59 years, Jill Freud, his five children, his 17 grandchildren and his two elder brothers, Stephen and Lucian.^[17]

Bibliography

• 1968 - Grimble - illustrated by Quentin Blake
• 1973 - Grimble at Christmas - illustrated by Quentin Blake
• 1978 - Freud on Food
• 1980 - Clicking Vicky
• 1981 - The Book of Hangovers
• 1983 - Below the Belt
• 1988 - No one Else Has Complained
• 1989 - The Gourmet's Tour of Great Britain and Ireland
• 2001 - Freud Ego
• 2009 - Freud on Course - The Racing Lives of Clement Freud

References

Further reading

• Crewe, Daniel. "One of Nature’s Liberals: the career of Sir Clement Freud, artist, journalist, chef, bon-viveur – and Liberal MP, 1973-87" in Journal of Liberal History, Issue 43, Summer 2004.

External links

• Video: Sir Clement Freud dies aged 84 - Times Online
• NYTimes obit.
• Sir Clement Freud dies aged 84 - guardian.co.uk
• AP Obituary in The Times
• Gallery of pictures at guardian.co.uk
• "Clement Freud talking about Just a Minute (RealPlayer video)". BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/comedy/rams/jam_clement.ram. 
• ""Just a Minute" archive of shows". BBC Radio 4. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/. 
• Clement Freud at the Internet Movie Database