Stanley Johnson was born in 1940 in Penzance, Cornwall, the son of Osman Kemal (1909–1992) (later known as Wilfred Johnson) and Irene Williams (1907–1987) (daughter of Stanley Fred Williams of Bromley, Kent, who was the grandson of Sir George Williams,[7] and Marie Louise de Pfeffel).[8][9] His paternal grandfather, Ali Kemal Bey, one of the last interior ministers of the Ottoman government, was assassinated in 1922 during the Turkish War of Independence. Stanley's father was born in 1909 in Bournemouth, and his birth was registered as Osman Ali Wilfred Kemal.[10] Osman's Anglo-Swiss mother Winifred Brun died shortly after giving birth.[11] Ali Kemal returned to the Ottoman Empire in 1912, whereafter Osman Wilfred and his sister Selma were brought up by their English grandmother, Margaret Brun, and took her maiden name, Johnson, Stanley's father thus becoming Wilfred Johnson.[12]
Johnson's maternal grandmother's parents were Hubert Freiherr von Pfeffel (born in Munich in the Kingdom of Bavaria on 8 December 1843) and his wife Hélène Arnous-Rivière (born on 14 January 1862). Hubert von Pfeffel was the son of Karl Freiherr von Pfeffel (born in Dresden in the Kingdom of Saxony on 22 November 1811; died in Munich on 25 January 1890) by his marriage in Augsburg on 16 February 1836 to Karolina von Rothenburg (born in the Free City of Frankfurt on 28 November 1805; died in Frankfurt on 13 February 1872), herself said to be the illegitimate daughter of Prince Paul of Württemberg by Friederike Porth.
Stanley Johnson attended Sherborne School, Dorset. While still an undergraduate studying English at Exeter College, Oxford, he took part in the Marco Polo Expedition with Tim Severin and Michael de Larrabeiti, travelling on a motorcycle and sidecar from Oxford to Venice and on to India and Afghanistan. The adventure led to the publication of Severin's 1964 book Tracking Marco Polo, with photographs by de Larrabeiti.
In July 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Johnson posted pictures on Instagram of himself travelling to Athens, Greece. He was criticised by Liberal Democrat MP Jamie Stone for travelling at a time when guidance under lockdown was to avoid "all but essential international travel".[18] At the time, Greece had reopened its borders but banned direct travel from the United Kingdom; Johnson had circumvented Greece's rules by travelling via Bulgaria.[19]
In December 2020, Johnson said that he was applying for a French passport as his mother and her parents were French.[20][21] After subsequently being awarded French citizenship Johnson stated that he was delighted.[22][23]
Johnson was the recipient of a United States, Harkness Fellowship and was then employed at the World Bank in Washington during the 1960s. He went on to become the Head of Prevention of Pollution Division at the European Commission (EC) in Brussels from 1973, acting briefly as advisor to the head of ECPS in May 1979, before taking a leave of absence a month later. He resumed his former role with the EC in 1984, until taking a second leave of absence in 1990, this time to work in the field of international environmental policy. He retired early from the EC in 1994.[24][25][26]
Politics
From June 1979-84 Johnson served as the elected Conservative PartyMEP (95,000 majority) representing the area of Hants East and the Isle of Wight.[26]
In May 2008, Johnson hoped to be selected to contest his son Boris's parliamentary seat of Henley for the Conservative Party, but local councillor John Howell was the candidate selected.[27]
He has published a number of books dealing with environmental issues and nine novels, including The Commissioner, which was made into a 1998 film starring John Hurt. In 1962 he won the Newdigate Prize for Poetry.
For a time, starting on 26 May 2005, he wrote a weekly column for the G2 section of The Guardian, and continued to write for various newspapers and magazines, often on environmental topics.[29]
He wrote a memoir, Stanley I Presume, published in March 2009.[30]
His 2015 novel The Virus is a thriller about the rise of a mysterious virus and the fight to stop a deadly pandemic.[31]
Television
He was one of the first regular hosts of the late night discussion programme The Last Word on Channel 4's More4 channel, and made an appearance on Have I Got News For You on 7 May 2004.[32][better source needed]
In October 2015 Johnson was awarded the RSPB Medal by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds for his role in the creation of one of the cornerstones of Europe's nature conservation policy – the Habitats Directive (1992).[35]
In August 2018, Johnson said his son Boris Johnson's comments that Muslim women who wear burkas look like "letterboxes" and "bank robbers" did not go far enough, and that criticism of the comments had been "synthetic indignation" created by political opponents.[37]
In June 2022, ahead of Johnson's visit to China for a television programme on the explorer Marco Polo, Johnson called for the UK parliament to lift a ban on the Chinese ambassador to the UK entering the parliamentary estate.[38]
Allegations of spousal abuse and inappropriate touching
Biographer Tom Bower records in an interview with his first wife Charlotte Fawcett that 'he hit me many times, over many years'. She said of a 1970s incident "He broke my nose. He made me feel like I deserved it. I want the truth to be told."[14][39][40]
On 15 November 2021, Caroline Nokes accused Johnson of inappropriately touching her at the Conservative Party conference in Blackpool in 2003.[41] Johnson said that he had "no recollection of Caroline Nokes at all".[41] Following this, journalist Ailbhe Rea accused Johnson of groping her at the 2019 Conservative Party conference.[42][43]
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