Friends and politicians paid tribute to "the other Jack Profumo" today after the death of the man who gave his name to 20th century Britain's most sensational sex scandal.
The former Conservative minister died at the age of 91 after suffering a stroke. A spokesman for London's Chelsea and Westminster Hospital said that he died peacefully at about midnight surrounded by his family, two days after he was admitted to hospital.
A war hero with a film star wife, Profumo had been the youngest MP in Westminster and was even tipped as a future prime minister. But in June 1963, he was forced to resign as Secretary of State for War for lying to the House of Commons over his affair with Christine Keeler, a call girl.
He had assured Parliament that his friendship with Ms Keeler had been proper and had not had any security implications - in fact, it turned out that Ms Keeler had also sleeping with Yevgeny Ivanov, the naval attaché at the Russian Embassy in London.
The scandal shocked Britain at the height of the Cold War and Profumo's departure hastened the downfall of the Conservative government, which lost the general election the next year. He was shunned for many years by his former colleagues, some of whom blamed "the Profumo Affair" for the Tories' decline in the 1960s.
After his departure from politics, Profumo dedicated himself to charity work in the East End of London, which his many friends saw as a form of atonement for his actions and which earned him a CBE in 1975. He always refused to speak about the scandal that ended his political career.
Paying tribute this morning, Tony Blair said: "He was a politician with a glittering career who made a serious mistake, but who underwent a journey of redemption and who gave support and help to many, many people."
Profumo's school friend, the journalist Lord Deedes, said that he had paid for his mistakes with his charity work after politics. He told the BBC: "The fact is that he did - and continued to do until quite recently - a very long stint of social work for the poor of East London. And if that isn't considered to be sufficient atonement for the mistake he made, then there's no such thing as forgiveness."
John Dennis Profumo, known to his friends as "Jack", was born in 1915 to a Sardinian family that had emigrated to Britain in 1885 and built their fortunes on insurance. His father was an Italian baron and a King's Counsel.
He was brought up as an English gentleman, educated at Harrow and Oxford. He joined the Army in 1939 and rose to be a Brigadier, nurturing his political ambitions at the same time, entering the Commons in 1940 at the age of 25.
After his distinguished war service he boosted his personal charisma still further by marrying the film actress Valerie Hobson, star of Ealing comedies such as Kind Hearts and Coronets. Harold Macmillan made him Secretary of State for War - in modern parlance, Defence Secretary - in July 1960, with a brief to boost Army recruitment following the end of conscription.
His affair with Ms Keeler began after he was introduced to her by Stephen Ward, an artist and society osteopath, at Lord Astor's Cliveden country estate in Berkshire in July 1961. Ms Keeler was 19 - he was 48.
The liaison was as brief as it was casual and the matter might have ended without public knowledge, but for a bizarre set of circumstances. Christine was also sleeping with Commander Ivanov - a Russian intelligence officer and the Soviet assistant naval attaché in London, whom she had met through Ward - and with a West Indian petty criminal called Johnny Edgecombe.
With a discretion that now seems astonishing, the newspapers to whom Ms Keeler sold her story held back from publishing details. But gossip began circulating in Westminster and Fleet Street, not only about the War Minister and Ms Keeler, but linking other prominent Conservative politicians with call-girls and sex orgies.
In March 1963, battered by parliamentary gossip, Profumo delivered a personal statement to MPs denying "any impropriety whatever" in his relationship with Ms Keeler. His claim that it had been a platonic affair that ended in 1961 was accepted by the Cabinet. Downing Street described the matter as closed.
But while Macmillan and Cabinet colleagues took Profumo at his word, MPs and newspapers remained sceptical. There were tales of organised orgies, including whipping parties at a house in Mayfair where, it was said, one of the guests became over-excited and died of a heart attack.
Newspapers ran teasing stories about the War Minister performing his duties, next to items about Ms Keeler and her friend Mandy Rice-Davies. The story did not begin to break until the jealous Edgecombe - who had by now been jilted - went after Ms Keeler and opened up with a revolver, firing seven shots outside Ward's home in a quiet Marylebone mews where she was staying. In the ensuing police investigation, hard facts finally emerged.
Macmillan's Cabinet was sent into crisis by Ms Keeler's revelations that she had sex with both Profumo and Ivanov, posing an acute security risk. The final blow came when Dr Ward was arrested and charged with living on immoral earnings.
The disgraced minister was forced to stand down, tendering his resignation in a letter to Macmillan on June 4 1963 after admitting that he had misled the House of Commons.
In September 1963, Lord Denning, the Master of the Rolls, published a report on the affair, concluding that there had been no breach of national security. A month later, Macmillan himself resigned, his ill-health exacerbated by the scandal.
Ward was prosecuted for living on immoral earnings, and committed suicide before the end of his trial. Ms Keeler was found guilty on unrelated perjury charges and sentenced to nine months in prison.
The story of Profumo's fall from grace was the subject of the 1989 film Scandal, with Sir Ian McKellen playing the role of the minister. In 1995, Margaret Thatcher called him "one of our national heroes" and seated him next to the Queen at her 70th birthday dinner.
Another former Tory leader, Iain Duncan Smith, said today: "Many will automatically remember his spectacular fall from grace in the Christine Keeler affair. But I will remember his remarkable work after that in the East End of London.
"For years after he stood down as a frontline politician he dedicated his life to helping the many devastated people in London. His enormous efforts will have changed the lives of many people over the years and he will be sadly missed by them and many of us who knew the other Jack Profumo."
