[2] Born in Culmstock, the son of a Devon farmer, Harold Sumption moved to London in the early 1930s to an apprenticeship at an advertising agency.

He proposed to the fledgling NHS that they pay towards this treatment whatever it would cost to treat him in London, as this would both free up a bed and in all likelihood lead to an earlier recovery.

[9] He was a fellow and council-member of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising,[7] and helped set up the Montreux International Direct Marketing Symposium.

[1] His first advert for Oxfam, a direct appeal for clothing and blankets to be sent to victims of conflict in Europe and the Middle East, ran in the Sunday Times in 1949.

[7] Sumption pioneered many modern fundraising techniques, including the "off-the page" fundraising advert (one which asks the reader for a direct response);[7] using keyed-response and split runs, to ensure that all creative executions and media placements were driven by results rather than personal opinion;[11] and in 1963, to commemorate Oxfam's 21st birthday, he helped orchestrate the first multimedia charity campaign, Oxfam's "Hunger £ Million",[12] which included a bread-and-water lunch in London's Trafalgar Square, pop stars collecting pound notes on spear-points, and the involvement of the Beatles.

[6] He pioneered the computerised mailing list, the charity trading catalogue, charity cinema commercials, home-delivered collection boxes (the "Oxfamily box"), and expanded charities' presence into previously unexplored spaces such as books of stamps, novels, free poster sites, Oxfam-themed radio shows on the pirate radio stations of the day, and a TV appeal featuring hard-hitting interrogation of Oxfam over perceived profligacy, by the TV star Stratford Johns, in character as Inspector Barlow of the series Z-Cars.