LORD Pitt of Hampstead, one of Britain's first black peers and a
tireless campaigner against racial prejudice, died yesterday following a
long illness. He was 81.
Born David Thomas Pitt, he came to Britain from Grenada in the 1930s
to study medicine at Edinburgh University, where he was the student
representative council's first junior president in 1936-37.
After qualifying, he returned to his native West Indies to play an
active part in politics but came back to Britain in 1947 to pursue his
medical career. He established a family doctor practice in the Euston
area of London, progressing to become president of the British Medical
Association in 1985-86.
In 1959, he became the first Afro-Caribbean black to stand for
Parliament when he contested the Hampstead seat for Labour. He also
stood for Clapham South in 1970.
A former London county councillor, he also sat on the Greater London
Council on its creation in 1964. Within 10 years, he was the GLC's first
black chairman. He was also London's first black justice of the peace.
In 1975, Prime Minister Harold Wilson gave him a life peerage and he
took the title Lord Pitt of Hampstead in Greater London and in Grenada.
Two years later, Lord Pitt, who was also chairman of Shelter for 11
years, was appointed chairman of the Community Relations Commission, the
first black person to hold the post.
Labour leader Mr Tony Blair said he heard of Lord Pitt's death with
great sadness. ''He has been a tribute to the party and a tireless
campaigner on racial and other important issues.''
He leaves a wife and three grown-up children and his family were at
Lord Pitt's bedside when he died peacefully at the Eden Hall Hospice in
Hampstead. He had been suffering from cancer, Mr Bruce Pitt, his
barrister son, said.
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