Editing Profumo affair (section)

===John Profumo===
[[John Profumo]] was born in 1915 and was of Italian descent. He first entered [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Parliament]] in 1940 as the [[Conservative Party (United Kingdom)|Conservative]] member for [[Kettering (UK Parliament constituency)|Kettering]] while serving with the [[Northamptonshire Yeomanry]], and combined his political and military duties through the [[Second World War]]. Profumo lost his seat in the [[1945 United Kingdom general election|1945 general election]] but was elected again in 1950 for [[Stratford-on-Avon (UK Parliament constituency)|Stratford-on-Avon]]. From 1951 he held junior ministerial office in successive Conservative administrations.

In 1960, Macmillan promoted Profumo to [[Secretary of State for War]], a senior post outside the [[Cabinet of the United Kingdom|Cabinet]].<ref name="odnbP">{{cite ODNB|last=Heffer|first=Simon|title=Profumo, John Dennis [Jack]|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/97107?docPos=1|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/97107|access-date=11 January 2014}} {{subscription required}}</ref> After his marriage in 1954 to [[Valerie Hobson]], one of Britain's leading film actresses, Profumo may have conducted casual affairs, using late-night parliamentary sittings as his cover.<ref>Davenport-Hines, p. 59</ref> His tenure as war minister coincided with a period of transition in the armed forces, involving the end of [[conscription]] and the development of a wholly professional army. Profumo's performance was watched with a critical eye by his opposition counterpart [[George Wigg]], a former [[Regular army|regular soldier]].<ref>Davenport-Hines, p. 66</ref><ref>Knightley and Kennedy, pp. 93–94</ref>