THE TELEGRAPH: An investigation into our hidden histories. This week: Nick Clegg. Nick Barratt reports
Nick Clegg won a closely fought contest this week to be the new leader of the Liberal Democrats, beating Chris Huhne to be the party's third leader in two years. Clegg's career in politics is relatively short-lived: he was elected Euro-MP for East Midlands in 1999 and then became MP for Sheffield Hallam in 2005. Prior to front-line politics, he worked for the European Commission from 1994, latterly with former EU Commissioner Leon Brittan, and was previously a Financial Times reporter. His candidacy is not uncontroversial given his part in the downfall of both Campbell and his predecessor, Charles Kennedy.
Who is he related to?
Nicholas Peter William Clegg was born in Chalfont St Giles in 1967 and is only one-quarter English. His mother, Eulalie Hermance van den Wall Bake, is Dutch but was born in Indonesia in 1936. When the Japanese army invaded in 1942, she was sent to a concentration camp with her parents, Hemmy and Louise, and two sisters. They were separated and spent the next three years in terrible conditions. On liberation, the family returned to Holland, but in 1956 Hermance travelled to England, where she met and later married Nick's father, also called Nick. Nick senior is half-English. >>> Nick Barratt | Saturday, December 22, 2007
