26-620: The Report of the Departmental Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution (better known as the Wolfenden report , after Sir John Wolfenden , the chairman of the committee) was published in the United Kingdom on 4 September 1957 after a succession of well-known men, including Lord Montagu of Beaulieu , Michael Pitt-Rivers , John Gielgud , and Peter Wildeblood were convicted of homosexual offences. Under
52-452: A decade after the report was published in 1957. The historian Patrick Higgins has described a number of flaws with the report: "its failure to understand or appreciate (except in the most negative terms) the importance of the homosexual subculture". It later became known publicly, (in 2017), that Wolfenden's son Jeremy Wolfenden was gay when historian Roger Lockyer stated the fact in a BBC interview. In 1997, John Wolfenden came 45th in
78-458: A departmental committee (in the Home Office and Scottish Home Department responsible for criminal law) under Sir John Wolfenden to consider both homosexual offences and prostitution. The committee of 15 (4 women and 11 men) was led by Sir John Wolfenden (1906–1985), a former headmaster of both Uppingham School and of Shrewsbury School ; and who in 1950 was appointed Vice Chancellor of
104-413: A disease, because in many cases it is the only symptom and is compatible with full mental health in other respects." The report added: The law's function is to preserve public order and decency, to protect the citizen from what is offensive or injurious, and to provide sufficient safeguards against exploitation and corruption of others ... It is not, in our view, the function of the law to intervene in
130-469: A don at Magdalen College, Oxford , in 1929. John Wolfenden was the headmaster of Uppingham School (1934–1944) and Shrewsbury School (1944–1950) and chairman of various government committees which mostly focused on education and problems with youth. In 1950 he became Vice-Chancellor of the University of Reading and found time to write two books, Family Affair and The Steele Age , both part of
156-609: A foreign correspondent for The Daily Telegraph and a British spy. He died aged 78, on 18 January 1985 in Guildford , Surrey , England. In his essay The Gap—The Bridge , Wolfenden discusses the problems with institutional dichotomy . His memoirs were published by The Bodley Head in 1976, under the title of Turning Points . Wolfenden was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1942, and
182-516: A leading jurisprudential scholar, who provided argument in its support. In The Enforcement of Morals , Devlin states that the Wolfenden report "is recognized to be an excellent study of two very difficult legal and social problems". Devlin attacks the principle, derived from John Stuart Mill 's On Liberty , that the law ought not concern itself with "private immorality", saying that the report "requires special circumstances to be shown to justify
208-589: The Pink Paper ’s list of the “top 500 lesbian and gay heroes”. John Wolfenden, Baron Wolfenden John Frederick Wolfenden, Baron Wolfenden , CBE (26 June 1906 – 18 January 1985) was a British educationalist probably best remembered for chairing the Wolfenden Committee whose report , recommending the decriminalisation of homosexuality, was published in 1957. He was headmaster of Uppingham and Shrewsbury public schools . Wolfenden
234-748: The Central Council of Physical Recreation which investigated the role of various statutory and voluntary groups in sport in the United Kingdom. The committee published its report in 1960, and fifty years later it was still an influential work in its field. In 1962, the Privy Council appointed Wolfenden as Chairman of the Council for the Training of Health Workers and the Council for the Training in Social Work , two bodies established by
260-690: The Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 , any homosexual activity between males was illegal. After the Second World War , there had been an increase in arrests and prosecutions, and by the end of 1954, in England and Wales , there were 1,069 men in prison for homosexual acts, with a mean age of 37 years. During a time of several significant trials, notably that of Lord Montagu of Beaulieu , the Conservative government set up
286-604: The Health Visiting and Social Work (Training) Act 1962 . Wolfenden was director of the British Museum from 1969 to 1973, became President of Chelsea College in 1972, Chairman of the Chelsea Building Society and Metropolitan Association of Building Societies in 1978. Wolfenden married Eileen Spilsbury in 1932, they had two sons and two daughters. His elder son was Jeremy Wolfenden ,
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#1732775500569312-401: The University of Reading . He later became Director of the British Museum . In addition to the chairman, the committee members were the following: The committee first met on 15 September 1954 and met on 62 days, 32 of which were used for interviewing witnesses. Wolfenden suggested at an early stage that, for the sake of the ladies in the room, they use the terms Huntley & Palmers after
338-449: The biscuit manufacturers – Huntleys for homosexuals, and Palmers for prostitutes. Evidence was heard from police and probation officers, psychiatrists, religious leaders (who in those days were at the forefront of homosexual law reform ), and gay men whose lives had been affected by the law. The estimated cost of preparing the report was £8,046 of which £735 represented the estimated cost of printing and publication. The secretary for
364-468: The committee was W. C. Roberts (Home Office) and his assistant was E. J. Freeman (Scottish Home Department). Getting gay men to give evidence proved to be very difficult for the committee: Wolfenden considered placing an advert in a newspaper or magazine, but the committee instead decided to locate three men willing to give evidence: Peter Wildeblood , Carl Winter , and Patrick Trevor-Roper . Wildeblood had been convicted and sent to prison. Winter
390-483: The family". As a result, there was a police crackdown on street prostitution following the report and the Street Offences Act 1959 was passed. The report's recommendations attracted considerable public debate, including an exchange of views in publications by Lord Devlin , a leading British judge, whose ideas and publications argued against the report's philosophical basis, and H. L. A. Hart ,
416-580: The intervention of the law. I think that this is wrong in principle". In late 1957, shortly after the report was published, the General Assembly of the Church of England , by a vote of 155 to 138, passed a resolution "That this Assembly generally approves the principles on which the criminal law concerned with sexual behaviour should be based as stated by the Wolfenden Committee, and also its recommendations relating to homosexuality, but considers that
442-490: The liberalisation of gay rights while sitting as Lord Kilmuir in the House of Lords. Geraldine Bedell noted the irony of this, and commented: "Perhaps he [Maxwell-Fyfe] thought, by handing over to a committee, to shelve the issue. Perhaps he assumed Wolfenden would find against, in which case, he chose a curious chairman, because Wolfenden had a gay son, Jeremy ." In 1957, Wolfenden chaired an independent committee initiated by
468-567: The maximum term of imprisonment for living on earnings of prostitution. Section 5(2) was repealed by Part XI of the Schedule to the Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1974 . Section 5(4) provides that the Act came into force at the expiration of the period of one month that began on the date on which it was passed. The word "month" means calendar month . The day (that is to say, 16 July 1959) on which
494-481: The private life of citizens, or to seek to enforce any particular pattern of behaviour. The recommended age of consent was 21 years (the age of majority in the UK then, though for mixed sex couples the age of consent was 16 and 16-year-olds could marry with their parents' permission). The report also discussed the rise in street prostitution at the time, which it associated with "community instability" and "weakening of
520-596: The recommendations relating to prostitution require further study". The recommendations eventually led to the passage of the Sexual Offences Act 1967 , applying to England and Wales only, that replaced the previous law on sodomy contained in the Offences against the Person Act 1861 and the 1885 Labouchere Amendment which outlawed every homosexual act short of sodomy. The Act did not become law until
546-602: The rise in street prostitution at the time. Until 2009, section 1(1) of the Street Offences Act 1959 used the old term " common prostitute " until Section 16 of the Policing and Crime Act 2009 amended it to replace the term "common prostitute" with "person". Section 2 of the Street Offences Act 1959 provided that a woman cautioned by a constable in respect of her conduct in a street or public place could apply by way of complaint to an authorised court. The rule
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#1732775500569572-449: The series of 'Take Home Books'. From 1954 to 1957 he was Chairman of the Departmental Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution, known in shorthand as the Wolfenden Committee after himself, whose report was published in 1957. Wolfenden had been appointed to head the committee by the then Home Secretary, Sir David Maxwell Fyfe to consider whether the existing laws on these should be changed. Maxwell Fyfe would later come to oppose
598-526: Was knighted in 1956. He was created a life peer on 12 July 1974 with the title Baron Wolfenden , of Westcott in the County of Surrey . Street Offences Act 1959 The Street Offences Act 1959 ( 7 & 8 Eliz. 2 . c. 57) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom concerning street prostitution . It was passed following the publication of the Wolfenden report which discussed
624-736: Was born on 26 June 1906 in Swindon, Wiltshire , England. He was the son of George Wolfenden and Emily Hannah Gaukroger, both born in Halifax, Yorkshire . George Wolfenden became an official of the West Riding Local Education Authority based in Wakefield , West Riding of Yorkshire , where John attended Queen Elizabeth Grammar School . He won a scholarship to Oxford . Having studied in Oxford, Wolfenden became
650-638: Was director of the Fitzwilliam Museum and Trevor-Roper was an eye surgeon and brother of the historian Hugh Trevor-Roper . In order to protect their identities, Trevor-Roper was referred to as the "Doctor" while Winter was referred to as "Mr White". The committee recommended that "homosexual behaviour between consenting adults in private should no longer be a criminal offence". All but James Adair were in favour of this and, contrary to some medical and psychiatric witnesses' evidence at that time, found that "homosexuality cannot legitimately be regarded as
676-467: Was that the woman's complaint was to be heard and determined in camera, unless the woman desired that the proceedings should be conducted in public. The provisions in sections 3(2) to (5) had effect in relation to the punishment of offences to which section 26 of the Licensing Act 1949 applied. This section was repealed by Part II of Schedule 9 to the Licensing Act 1961 . Section 4 established
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