for the Journal of Liberal History

Bill Pitt, Photo: Isle of Thanet NewsMore personal obituaries of Bill Pitt are appearing in The Guardian and in Liberator. I am concerned here with the historical significance of the Croydon North West by-election on 22 October 1981 and of Bill's role in it. Bill was a long-serving, popular and convivial Liberal party member who was a member of a number of party committees. For a time he edited the party's internal briefing paper, Radical Bulletin. He was the prospective Liberal candidate for his home constituency of Croydon North-West which was, technically, a marginal Conservative seat with the Labour party almost but never quite succeeding in gaining it. By no stretch of the imagination could the Liberals have envisaged winning it in any "normal" circumstances, indeed Bill had lost his deposit at the previous, 1979, general election, though he polled 23% at the May 1981 Greater London Council election in the same constituency - a fact rarely acknowledged.

The Alliance between the SDP and the Liberal party was envisaged from the launch of the SDP in late March 1981 though not formally launched until the two parties' conferences that Autumn. Late in May 1981 Sir Tom Williams resigned his Warrington seat in order to become a High Court judge. The Liberals had always struggled to save their deposit in Warrington so it was perceived a good seat in which the SDP could test the water. Shirley Williams hesitated and eventually said "no", whereupon Roy Jenkins bravely stepped in and fought an excellent campaign, just failing to win by under 2,000 votes.

Robert Taylor, the Conservative MP for Croydon NW, died on 19 June 1981, just one month before the polling day in Warrington. The informal understanding between the Alliance parties was that they should take turns in fighting by-elections, hence Croydon was assumed to fall to the Liberals to fight. Immediately doubts were cast on this. First, Bill Pitt was thought to be a pedestrian candidate with a poor track record and incapable of winning. Second, Shirley Williams indicated her willingness to fight. Third, David Steel, as Liberal leader, indicated that he was in favour of Shirley being the candidate. Typically he failed to consult his party but tried to bounce it into accepting Shirley Williams. Steel always neglected the party which he did not rate as at all important¹ and he paid the price on this occasion. The quarterly Liberal Party Council meeting in Abingdon passed a resolution overwhelmingly affirming the party's support for Bill Pitt as the by-election candidate. I met with David Steel the Tuesday after Abingdon and asked him what he intended to do. He replied, "I suppose I'll have to bow to democracy"! Had he chatted up the party immediately the seat became vacant and had he had a better relationship with it, he would have probably convinced it - and Bill Pitt - to give way. This incident rankled with Steel ever after.²

Bill duly continued as the candidate. Shirley Williams and the SDP loyally campaigned for him and he won a remarkable victory on 22nd October. The point was well made that if the Alliance could win a by-election in a Conservative-Labour marginal seat with a non-celebrity candidate it augured well for its electoral future. His tenure was shortlived and he lost the seat in May 1983. He moved to Kent and fought, unsuccessfully, Thanet South in 1987 and 1992. He then, somewhat perversely, joined the Labour party.

There was a sub-text to this whole episode. Some of us in the Liberal party were determined to protect the party against the SDP. In 1981 and early 1982 there was a real danger that the SDP would dominate the Alliance and, through by-election successes, run away with it to the detriment of the whole status and future of the Liberal party. Hard on the heels of the Roy Jenkins near-miss in Warrington, an SDP victory in Croydon would have provided a real springboard for other victories and the possible eclipse of the Liberal party. I was always immensely relieved that sitting Labour MPs who defected to the SDP did not resign and fight by-elections, starting with David Owen and Bill Rodgers, to be followed by each of the twenty-six further defectors. In my view Own and Rodgers would have won and created a real momentum for most of the rest. This was not simply a narrow loyalty to the Liberal party for the sake of it; my philosophical and policy reasons were set out in a booklet published at the time.³

There is also a postscript to Bill Pitts and Croydon by-election. On 1st October 1981 the MP for Crosby, Graham Page, died. In his chapter in the 2010 book ⁴ David Steel states that the Liberal candidate, Anthony Hill, "graciously stood down" for Shirley to fight and win the by-election. That is not the case. When the news of Page's death became public, the rolling SDP conference had reached Southport. I was talking to Anthony Hill, the prospective candidate for Crosby, in the bar adjacent to the conference hall when we heard Shirley Williams announce from the platform that she intended to fight the by-election. Anthony, a loyal Liberal of twenty years standing was simply pushed aside, but felt that it would be futile to try to "do a Croydon".

¹ See Steel's autobiography, Against Goliath, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1989, p135.

²See his chapter in Making the Difference - Essays in honour of Shirley Williams, ed Andrew Duff, Biteback, 2010, page 69.

³ Social Democracy - Barrier or Bridge? Liberator Publications, 1981. (Available as a pdf via www.bramley.demon.co.uk/liberal.html).

⁴Ibid p 69.

Liberator obituary

Bill Pitt, Photo: Isle of Thanet NewsBill Pitt was a popular and convivial Liberal party colleague. For a decade and more he was very much one of "the club" of Liberals of like mind who campaigned together and socialised together. For a time he edited Radical Bulletin, then a separate internal party briefing journal. On occasions when it did not appear he always had an excuse, sometimes blaming problems with his local post office, but it was suspected that he had simply not prepared it! He had joined the party in the 1960s after, rather curiously, a few years in the Norwood Young Conservatives. He became a member of a number of party committees and was well known and liked around the party - a fact that stood him in good stead when it came to the Croydon North West by-election of October 1981.

Bill had fought the three previous general elections in Croydon North West, losing his deposit in the most recent, 1979, contest. He had, however, polled more respectably - 23.7% - in the May 1981 Greater London Council election in the identical seat. Croydon North West was technically a marginal seat with the Labour party almost but never quite gaining it from the Conservatives. In normal circumstances the Liberals could not have envisaged winning it but the circumstances when the MP died in June 1981 the situation was entirely different. The SDP had been launched three months earlier with great fanfares and an immediate public response. An alliance with the Liberal party was negotiated and when an unprepossessing by-election vacancy occurred in Warrington. Roy Jenkins bravely took it on for the SDP-Alliance and failed to win by under 2,000 votes.

Although the understanding was that the two parties should fight by-elections alternately but when Croydon came up, Liberal Leader David Steel, made public his wish that Shirley Williams should be the joint candidate. With Bill's electoral record he regarded him as a loser. As he records in his memoirs, David Steel never had much time for the party, and rather than preparing the ground by persuading party officers of the good sense of the proposal, he simply tried to bounce the party. Inevitably, the party responded by backing Bill. A party council meeting in Abingdon overwhelmingly affirmed its support for him as the candidate and he was duly nominated. This internal defeat rankled permanently with David Steel, but Shirley Williams and other SDP leaders loyally backed Bill and he won a remarkable victory on 22 October 1981, becoming the first Alliance MP to be elected as such. The point was well made at the time that if the Alliance could win a by-election in a Conservative-Labour marginal seat with a non-celebrity candidate it augured well for the future. It turned out to be Bill's fifteen minutes of fame and he lost the seat in May 1983. He was somewhat complacent about holding the seat and he spent more time on parliamentary business than was conducive to local success.

There was an important sub-text to Bill Pitt and Croydon North West. Myself and a number of party colleagues were concerned to safeguard the future of the Liberal party against an over-weening dominance of the SDP within the Alliance, which was a real possibility at the time. I wrote a booklet at the time on the philosophical challenge to Liberalism of a resurgent social democracy but the possibility of electoral eclipse was more immediate. An SDP victory in Croydon, following on the heels of Roy Jenkins' near miss in Warrington, would have created an SDP momentum of great danger to the party. Bill Pitt's victory was therefore of wider significance.

Subsequently he and his wife Janet moved to Kent and he fought Thanet South unsuccessfully at the 1987 and 1992 general elections. Thereafter he, rather perversely, joined the Labour party for whom he unsuccessfully fought local elections.

The postscript to the inauspicious attempt to replace Bill Pitt by Shirley Williams in Croydon occurred when the next vacancy occurred, in Crosby, Merseside. David Steel records that Anthony Hill, the Liberal candidate in situ there, "graciously stood down." That is not the case! The news of the sitting MP's death became known when the SDP's rolling conference had arrived in Southport. I was standing in the conference bar talking to Anthony Hill while Shirley's voice addressing the conference came over the PA system announcing from the platform that she intended to fight the by-election! Anthony, a loyal Liberal of twenty years' standing, was simply pushed aside, but felt that it was futile to try to "do a Croydon."

Bill was raised by his mother in Brixton Hill, south London, and attended Heath Clark grammar school, Croydon, and the London Nautical school before studying for a philosophy degree at North London Polytechnic (now the University of North London). In 1961 he married Janet Wearn, an artist and teacher. They had a daughter, Janet.

He worked first as a lighting engineer, then as a housing officer for Lambeth council, and finally as group training manager at the Canary Wharf group in east London. On his retirement from full-time employment in 2003 Bill got involved with a number of local voluntary organisations, particularly to do with music and photography. He also became a newsreader for the Academy FM Thanet local radio station and became a mentor to newer recruits to the station's team.

William Pitt, born 17 July 1937, died 17 November 2017.

Guardian obituary

Bill Pitt, Photo: Isle of Thanet NewsMy former colleague, Bill Pitt, who has died aged 80. Had his fifteen minutes of fame in October 1981 when he became the first Member of Parliament elected under for the SDP-Liberal Alliance, following the Liberal and Social Democrat parties joining in an electoral alliance. Bill had fought the Croydon North West constituency unsuccessfully at the three previous elections and the Liberal leader, David Steel, wanted him to stand aside for Shirley Williams. David did not enlist the key Liberal party committee in this quest and Bill - and the party - took the huff, dug their heels in and insisted on standing, scoring a remarkable success. Bill was rather complacent about holding the seat and did not give it the attention it needed and partly as a result he lost at the general election less than two years later.

Bill was a convivial and popular Liberal party colleague, having joined the party in the 1960s after a few years in the Norwood Young Conservatives. He served on many party committees both regionally and nationally, including at one point editing the internal scandal sheet Radical Bulletin. He polled creditably in Croydon North West in the two general elections of 1974 but lost his deposit at the 1979 contest. He did, however, more than double that Liberal vote at the May 1981 Greater London Council election covering the same area. The Croydon by-election followed close on the heels of Roy Jenkins' contest in Warrington in which, though he did not win, Jenkins polled unexpectedly well. Party managers believed that, though, under the alliance terms, it was the Liberals' "turn" it needed a big name, hence the Shirley Williams idea. The parties' made the best of Bill's subsequent victory pointing out that, if the Alliance could win such an unprepossessing seat without a celebrity candidate such as Williams, it could win anywhere.

After losing his Croydon North West seat Bill fought the Thanet South constituency in 1987 and 1992 but then joined the Labour party stating that he was disillusioned with the Liberal Democrats, as the merged Liberal party and SDP had become, and that he wanted to stop Jonathan Aitken winning the seat again. He unsuccessfully fought local elections for Labour in the Isle of Thanet. Following his retirement from full time employment in 2003, Bill got involved with a number of local voluntary organisations, particularly to do with music and photography. He also became a newsreader for Academy FM Thanet and became a mentor to newer recruits to the radio station's team. He leaves a wife, Janet, and a daughter, Jane.

William Pitt, born 17 July 1937, died 17 November 2017.

Geoff arrived on the local community scene some twenty-five years ago, just before I left Bradford CVS. He was an ideal voluntary organisation officer: intelligent, progressive, determined, comradely, patient - at least on the surface - and he wore a dog collar!

Since that time I got to know Geoff in a wide variety of guises. With Sylvia and Liz we dined together from time to time, swapping information on restaurants to visit, or enjoying leisurely meals in our homes. With Geoff in charge of the cooking there was always at least one, if not many, exotic dishes, usually with some ingredient known only to Geoff.

When we were looking for new partners in the house in the Languedoc, Geoff and Sylvia were obvious recruits and until Geoff became too ill to make the journey he was an enthusiastic user of the house and a knowledgeable taster and - much more - a consumer of the wine of the local Faugères appellation. The conviviality of the meetings of the house co-operative was always enhanced by Geoff's presence.

From time to time Geoff would produce some apparently recondite solution to a problem at the Faugères house. With his technical experience and scientific knowledge it was difficult to argue against some invention that to us innocents seemed completely weird and impractical. One such was a sort of self-condensing air conditioner which didn't need an outlet! We posed every possible question and objection but Geoff was as stubborn as ever. Eventually we suggested that he get on with its manufacture. Nothing ever happened! This was an example of one of Geoff's idiosyncrasies: during the time that he was keen on an idea no obstacle was insuperable, but once he had lost interest no amount of pressure could catalyse him into action. Sometimes it was just when one had got used to some Geoff idea that one discovered that he had abandoned it!

Geoff's computer skills were remarkable. He was very rarely defeated by any problem and on the odd occasion when he couldn't immediately rescue the situation, and after having spent an inordinate amount of time at Waterloo Lodge or wherever, there would be a later flash of inspiration and an immediate 'phone call or visit with an insistent demand to "try clicking this and scrolling to that ...." and it would usually work. He enjoyed equipping me for my missions to exotic places with innovative portable items and often some brand new dial up network that would work "everywhere."

Of course, even though solidly ensconced in front of the screen, lubricated probably too regularly with glasses of a good Faugères red, he would be conducting other rescue missions via his portable. I would only hear his end of the conversation and I would be fascinated by his apparent patience with a colleague whose technical naivety was only too obvious. After some minutes of "try this, try that .... what can you see? .... no, no, no - you've got the wrong screen .... you can't possibly have that visible etc," he would discover that he, or more often she, hadn't even got it connected to the 'phone line! The same conversations would even go on as we drove down the French motorways to the Languedoc.

One thing Geoff wasn't was a businessman. If he had been he would surely have been able to sell his technical skills. At heart the problem was that didn't really want to charge anyone anything! Consequently he fixed his servicing fee far too low and even then rarely got around to sending invoices. Attention to any sort of paper bureaucracy was far less of a priority than all the practical demands on his time. We had to remember when our "sub" was up and then force a cheque on him.

In a sense the Church of England was made for individuals like Geoff. It paid him a basic stipend which gave him great freedom to do "good works" that would never bring an income. He did, of course, give attention to his clerical duties, but his typical generosity to the local Methodists in offering them a home when their church was burnt down, paid dividends in that he had another team to share the formal services, particularly after his church at Windhill became a joint Anglican-Methodist centre of worship. He wasn't always fully attuned to the Methodist preaching "plan." On one occasion as we sat on the terrace at Faugères enjoying chilled white wine in the sunshine, his portable rang. It was the local Methodist secretary - wholly unaware that Geoff was not in the "parish" - wanting to check the hymns for a service at Baildon the day after! It took a number of calls, and some fast footwork, for Geoff to find a replacement preacher.

The same list of willing substitutes must also have been available when I needed immediate assistance on some far distant mission, as he seemed to be able to appear over one's shoulder almost as the 'phone call was still proceeding. "Send me a ticket, and I'll be there," was his constant refrain, and we often recalled with relish producing an illicit CD-ROM of the electoral register in Zambia, with Geoff surrounded by local staff and mountains of scanned paper from which the CD eventually emerged.

I only saw aspects of Geoff's parish life at Windhill from a distance, but his patience with individuals with problems, often men with serious mental illness, was remarkable. He never rejected anyone and continued to work with a number of people, both in the church and in the local community association, who frankly sometimes didn't deserve the care he lavished on them. How he put up with the vandalism and burglaries at the vicarage, I'll never know. And which other vicar would be able to construct a rotating iron frame big enough to cope with a whole sheep for a vicarage barbecue?

Once, after Geoff and Sylvia had moved to Oakenshaw, he was late arriving for a meeting and was giggling away as he got out the car. Apparently, as he was coming down his drive to his car, complete with dog collar, an irate man had accosted him. "It's about our Sharon. What are going to do about it? And you a clergyman." Geoff was, of course, totally baffled and said so. "Don't try and pretend you don't know," responded the man, "I want to know what you're going to do about it." Again, Geoff expressed his complete puzzlement. The man continued, "and you a man of the cloth, carrying on with a young girl like this." Eventually it transpired that "Sharon" was pregnant and that the man at Geoff's address was responsible. Geoff calmed the man down enough to enquire about the origin of the address. It turned out that it was the occupant of the same house number in Bradford Road, but in Cleckheaton not Oakenshaw! Geoff was rather chuffed that he might be thought capable of such "carrying on."

Geoff's technological skills were occasionally used in splendidly curious ways. Once, being in receipt of an e-mail telling him that a former Nigerian government offical want to transfer zillions of pounds to his account, Geoff replied from one of his many untraceable e-mail addresses. After a couple of e-mail exchanges, Geoff agreed to pay the required up front cash in order to have the Nigerian welath unspendable released. Geoff insisted on paying in cash and arranged to meet the Nigerian official at the disembarkment point of the Hull to Rotterdam ferry. Geoff had selected this precise spot as he had discovered that it was possible to receive an online feed from a CCTV camera on the quay. Geoff watched with glee from his home as the Nigerian walked up and down for ages, regularly consulting his watch, as he waited in vain for his "client" to arrive.

Geoff was remarkably well read, particularly on obscure subjects, and it was perhaps fitting that his last contribution, when he was already very ill, to the Notes and Queries column in The Guardian was on the fate of the Akong of Swat!

A great friend and colleague; often infuriating but always lovable; a bon viveur and a great human being, Geoff will be very much missed.

Geoffrey Percival, born 4 May 1946, died 14 August 2009

North Yorkshire and former Leeds Councillor, Denis Pedder, has died in Humanby, North Yorkshire, at the age of 76. He had been suffering from cancer for some time. At the time of his death he was an Independent Councillor on the North Yorkshire County Council, representing the Cayton Division, and until his retirement last year had been a Scarborough District Councillor for the Hertford ward.

Born in October 1927, Councillor Pedder had had a chequered career in politics. He first contested Leeds City Council elections in 1960 as an Independent candidate for the Westfield ward. Thereafter he joined the Liberal party for whom he contested the Stanningley ward unsuccessfully on five occasions, from 1961 to 1965. He was also the unsuccessful Liberal parliamentary candidate for Leeds West in 1964 and 1966 and for Leeds South in February 1974.

His electoral fortunes changed in 1969. Having been the election agent for David Austick's narrow victory for the Liberals at a by-election in the West Hunslet ward in 1968, Denis Pedder then took the same ward in May 1969 with a majority of over 1,000. He held West Hunslet easily in 1972 and then in 1973 he won the combined East and West Hunslet ward for both the City Council and for the short-lived West Yorkshire Metropolitan County Council.

On the Leeds City Council he was the Liberal Group's Chief Whip until he suddenly resigned that office on the day of a City Council meeting. Following the council meeting he was expelled from the Liberal Group whereupon he immediately applied to join the Labour party. Labour, being conscious of Pedder's mercurial and sometimes capricious personality, delayed admitting him to membership and so he withdrew his application. He then contested Hunslet twice unsuccessfully as an independent.

Denis Pedder was educated at secondary school in Lancaster and subsequently at Burnley Technical College and Leeds University. By profession he was a manufacturing chemist and, later, a consultant microbiologist. In the recession of the mid 1970s he lost a number of consultancy contracts and to survive financially he bought an off licence in Beeston, in his electoral ward. On retirement he moved to Hunmanby and immediately began contesting elections there.

Denis Pedder was a fearless advocate of a cause and a remarkable orator whose speeches to a packed concert room on Saturday nights at the West Hunslet Liberal Club greatly helped him to win his seat. He was a difficult colleague but a great individualist who on occasion showed considerable foresight - only some five years after its construction he told the Leeds City Council that the deck-access Hunslet Grange development would be demolished in his lifetime. He was right: it lasted only into the 1980s.

He leaves a wife, Kathleen and two daughters.

Jerry Pearlman practised as a solicitor in Leeds for sixty years and was one the best known and most popular lawyers in the city. He was particularly known for his dogged persistence in defending rights of way and in creating better access to the countryside. He played a significant role in the successful lobbying for the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 which was the key legislation in creating access and the "right to roam." He and his wife, Bernice, were themselves great walkers and had a ready base with a cottage in the hamlet of Stalling Busk in Raydale, North Yorkshire. As a consequence of his notoriety as an environmental lawyer he ended up acting for campaigners he described as eccentric zealots with the potential to change the law. Three of these he described in his recent book Tales from an Environmental and Tribal Lawyer. He became deputy-chair of the Yorkshire Dales National Parks Authority, chair of the Yorkshire and Humber Regional Access Forum and an honorary vice-president of the Ramblers' Association.

Clients who mounted the narrow stairs to the garret in Albion Street that was one of his earliest offices were intrigued by the deed boxes prominently displayed on a shelf, clearly marked "Kingdom Native Government of Bunyoro Kitana (Uganda)." One did not like to enquire about a client but the whole story of being instructed just eighteen months after qualifying on an international case which led to an appearance before a Privy Council Commission and the subsequent thirty-five year involvement, is also told in the recent book. Jerry was in demand for lectures on this and other topics, not least comparing the legal profession of yesterday with the legal industry of today and to question whether the public is now better served.

He had a long partnership with Colin Grazin followed by other partnerships, not all of which proved congenial, but he ended his legal career happily as a consultant to Zermanskys. His colleagues demonstrated their respect for his legal reputation by making him president of the Leeds Law Society and a member of the Solicitors' Complaints Bureau.

Jerry made only one foray into politics, as the Liberal candidate for Moortown ward in 1963 but he was generous in his pro bono advice to needy constituents of Liberal Councillor and MP, Michael Meadowcroft. He was also part of the pioneering campaign for the establishment of a parish council for Alwoodley and he served as its chair of planning for many years. He wrote enthusiastically on the role of the parish in a chapter for the Leeds Yellow Book - Essays on a Liberal Future for Leeds published last month.

He and Bernice were regular attenders at a wide range of musical occasions in Leeds and these were always opportunities to exchange news and information, just as were his appearances at the Leeds Luncheon Club. Jerry and Bernice were extremely convivial and they were splendid hosts; they also enjoyed travelling, not least to wine regions. Jerry was very committed to his daughters and to his grandchildren.

Joseph (Jerry) Pearlman, born Redcar 1933, married Bernice Olsburgh in Leeds 1961, died 9 March 2018. Survived by his wife Bernice, his daughters, Kate Pearlman-Shaw and Debbie Hougie and grandchildren Mark, Alexandra and Jacob.

Foster Lamb was born into a Liberal family and his father, Ernest Lamb, was Liberal MP for Rochester, 1906 to January 1910 and then December 1910 to 1918. Ernest subsequently joined the Labour party and was given a peerage in 1931, becoming Lord Rochester. Foster Lamb inherited the title in 1955 but despite his political heritage, he played no active part in politics until Geoff Tordoff (later Lord Tordoff) signed him up for the Liberal party in Northwich in 1962. The following year he began to contribute to debates in the House of Lords. He joined the National Liberal Club in 1963, remaining a member until 1974. He rejoined the Club in 1980 and was a Trustee from 1998 to 2006.

Foster Rochester joined ICI following the Second World War and specialised in personnel management becoming the Personnel Manager of the Mond Division of ICI where its founder, Alfred Mond, had introduced employee share ownership schemes from an early date. Foster's enthusiasm for employee participation in industry was very much in tune with Jo Grimond's Liberal party and Foster became the party's spokesperson on employment in the Lords. He was a faithful attender at party assemblies and, despite his rather quiet persona, his knowledge of industrial affairs and his obvious commonsense, ensured that he was invariably listened to with respect on all sides of the House.

He held a number of public offices in Cheshire and Staffordshire and he had a passionate interest in cricket, aided not least by the fact that his second son, Tim Lamb, played for Northamptonshire for several years.

Lord Rochester, born 7 June 1916 died 6 February 2017.

Adrian Slade had three strings to his bow: a successful advertising executive, a fine entertainer and a long term Liberal colleague. The three regularly overlapped, not least when he became the life and soul of the party at the Liberal Party’s end of Assembly Glee Club. He once told me of his professional debut as a solo artist when he was hired by Clement Freud for one of his night clubs. On his first night Freud came forward to introduce his nervous artiste and simply said, “This is Adrian Slade - he does things with a piano.” This aspect of his life followed his time as President of the Cambridge Footlights when, it is alleged, he recruited Peter Cook but turned down David Frost. His piano was part of his personality and went with him into the care home in which he spent his last years.

His father, George Penkavil Slade, known as “Pen”, was a Barrister who died when Adrian was six; his mother, Mary Albinia Alice Carnegie lived to the age of 92. Adrian was sent to Eton at the age of 13. Adrian’s three elder siblings were all distinguished: his sister, Pauline was awarded the MBE for her work in the voluntary sector,; one brother Christopher was a Lord Justice of Appeal; and his other brother, Julian, was a composer. From 1960 Adrian was employed by leading PR agencies before founding his own company In 1971. He was responsible for the 1979 general election poster showing David Steel poised above Margaret Thatcher and Jim Callaghan each of the latter pointing guns in opposite directions. 

Adrian was one of that considerable band of “Grimond Liberals” who were drawn into Liberal politics by the charismatic and intellectually rigorous Liberal Leader, Jo Grimond. Adrian joined the party in 1963 and was its candidate in Putney at the 1966 election, polling just 10% of the vote. He fought the seat twice more, in February 1974, doubling the Liberal vote, and again in October 1974, polling 15%. At the 1987 general election he contested Wimbledon coming second with 27.5% of the vote. Between these parliamentary elections, in 1981, he won Richmond for the Greater London Council, the only Liberal success, but was soon joined by two Labour to SDP defectors, plus Mike Tuffrey’s by-election victory in 1985, and became leader of the Alliance group, until Margaret Thatcher abolished the authority in 1986. Following his victory he went to see Ken Livingstone, the GLC’s Labour leader, to discuss what committees he should sit on and they also discussed where he should sit in the council chamber as to annoy the Conservatives the most.

Following his 1981 election victory the Conservatives launched a legal petition alleging errors in his election expenses return. The court did not unseat him but found two technicalities which resulted in legal expenses of around £50,000. Adrian’s many friends rallied round and a star studded cast of former Footlights colleagues appeared in “An Evening at Court” on the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, on 23 January 1983 to raise funds for Adrian. Among those appearing were  John Cleese, Peter Cook, Angela Thorne, French and Saunders, The Goodies, Eleanor Bron and John Fortune. Adrian also recorded his brilliant - and often scurrilous - party Assembly songs and also published them as “Party Pieces” also on sale for his appeal.

In 1987 he was elected as Liberal Party President and became the last to serve as such. As President he was a member of the Liberal team that negotiated the merger with the SDP from September 1988 to January 1989. His personal contributions included proposing “The Democrats” as the name for the new party; when this was rejected he then suggested “The Alliance”. These initiatives were perverse as a number of Liberal parliamentarians had clearly stated that they were not prepared to join a party that did not have the word “Liberal” in its title. He spoke in favour of the merger at the Special Assembly in Blackpool on 23 January 1988. He was awarded the CBE in 1988.

Between 2002 and 2011 Adrian carried out an important series of lengthy interviews  with key Liberal Democrat parliamentarians for the Journal of Liberal History . He also interviewed Ludovic Kennedy who had fought the significant Rochdale by-election of 1958, and the Russian Liberal, Grigory Yavlinsky, president of the Yablokov party. The full interviews are held in the archive of the Journal.

Adrian was married to Sue for sixty-four years and was a great family man, treating family occasions with the same exuberant conviviality that characterised his political activities. His passions for cricket, football, food, wine and theatre, involved all the family: daughter Nicola, son Rupert and grandchildren, Kath, Hanna and Lara.