[LCC] BBC: More on Leo Abse

[Terrence Lockyer]

Source:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7572163.stm

BBC NEWS
Gay rights champion Leo Abse dies

* Gay rights champion and former MP Leo Abse has died 
at the age of 91, according to a family friend. *

The former Labour MP for Pontypool and then Torfaen 
died at Charing Cross Hospital, west London, on Tuesday 
night after a short illness.

Mr Abse guided a Private Member's Bill through 
Parliament in 1967 that legalised sex between men.

He was also credited with helping to liberalise divorce 
laws through the 1969 Divorce Reform Act.

Mr Abse, who was in the Commons for nearly 30 years, is 
survived by his second wife Ania.

On his website, Mr Abse, who was born in Cardiff in 
1917 and lived in Chiswick, west London, was described 
being politically active from an early age.

In 1944, while serving with the RAF in the Middle East, 
he was arrested for political activities in Cairo, 
Egypt.

On returning to Britain he became a solicitor and 
founded his practice Leo Abse and Cohen, based in south 
Wales, in 1951. It now employs around 150 people and 
has offices in Swansea and Newport as well as Cardiff, 
where it is one of the city's biggest solicitor firms.

He became an an MP in a by-election in Pontypool in 
1958 and remained until his retirement at 70 in 1987.

He remained in parliament for 29 years, holding the 
seat for Pontypool from 1958 to 1983 and then Torfaen 
from 1983 - 1987.

Having inspired nine Private Member's Acts, he was 
noted as one of Britain's top social reformers and was 
well known for his flamboyant style.

Torfaen Council leader Bob Wellington said Mr Abse was 
a "great politician" who "was never scared to start 
debates on subjects which other MPs avoided".

"Leo Abse was small in stature but he was an 
intellectual giant," he said.

"He was a great parliamentarian who championed the 
rights of his constituents for nearly 30 years with a 
passion and tenacity that left its mark on the borough 
and right across the UK through significant legal 
reform.

"Leo spoke regularly on national issues in Parliament 
but never forgot his main priority, the people of 
Torfaen.

"He will be sorely missed and can rightly be termed 
Britain's top reformer of the century."

Mr Abse was the son of Rudolf Abse, a Jewish solicitor 
and cinema owner who lived in Cardiff.

His younger brother is Dannie Abse, a renowned poet.

He attended Howard Gardens High School in Cardiff 
followed by the London School of Economics where he 
studied law.

In 1955 he married Marjorie Davies, an artist with a 
national reputation for her fabrique collage work and 
head of the pedagogic department at Cardiff College of 
Art.

They had two children: Tobias, a lecturer in European 
History, and Bathsheba, one-time curator of the Keats 
Museum in Rome and now married to an Italian diplomat.

After Marjorie's death in 1996, he re-married Ania 
Czepulkowska, a young Polish artist holding a Royal 
College Masters degree, in 2000.

Since his retirement he has written political books 
based on his interest in psychoanalysis.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/wales/7572163.stm

Published: 2008/08/20 11:49:21 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

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Posted to LambdaCC by

Terrence Lockyer
Johannesburg, South Africa