Philip Noel-Baker

Philip John Noel-Baker was born in November 1889 and carried Britain's flag into the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, where he took silver in the 1500m. He turned from the track to Parliament, serving as a Labour MP for 36 years across two stretches — 1929 to 1931, then 1936 to 1970 — and held several ministerial posts including cabinet office. Through it all he campaigned relentlessly for disarmament, work that earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1959. He was made a life peer in 1977 and died in October 1982.