Sir Clement Freud

Broadcaster, writer, politician and chef

Sir Clement Freud (1924-2009) grew up in Hampstead after his family (he was the grandson of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud) fled Nazi Germany. During the Second World War he served in the Royal Ulster Rifles, eventually serving as an aide to Field Marshal Montgomery and working at the Nuremburg Trials in 1947. After the war he was one of Britain’s first ‘celebrity chefs’, working at the Dorchester and opening up his own restaurant in Sloane Square. In the 1950s, he worked as a food and drink critic for a number of newspapers and magazines, and also went on to write on other subjects.

In 1973 Freud became MP for the Isle of Ely, a position he held for a decade. From 1983-1987 he was MP for North East Cambridgeshire, receiving a knighthood when he left parliament. He was well-known as a broadcaster, most notably as a panelist on the BBC Radio 4 show Just A Minute. Freud was elected Rector of Dundee University in 1974, serving two three-year terms, and in 2002 was elected Rector of St Andrews University. He died on 15 April 2009, aged 84.