Lord David Pitt

Lord David Pitt

Medic, political pioneer and labour peer for Hamstead, the late Lord David Pitt of Hampstead was the longest serving black Parliamentarian, having been granted a life peerage in 1975. He spent his life speaking out for the underrepresented black community in Great Britain. Born on the island of Grenada in the West Indies, David Pitt attended Grenada Boys' Secondary school and was raised a devout Roman Catholic and was the second peer of African descent, to sit in the House of Lords.  Pitt won a scholarship to come to Britain in 1933 to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh, a returned to the Caribbean to begin his medical career, founding his own practice, and in 1943 married (Lady) Dorothy (née Alleyne).He eventually settled in Trinidad where is passion for social justice continued alongside his medical career. In 1943 Pitt helped found the West Indian National Party and served as its president until 1947. This party was considered radical in its day because it advocated independence for Trinidad within a West Indian federation. He won election to the borough council in San Fernando, Trinidad, where he also served as deputy mayor. In order to lobby the British government for independence, he travelled to Great Britain in 1947. His efforts were unsuccessful, and he grew disillusioned with West Indian politics. He decided to settle in the London district of Euston, where he established a medical practice that he ran for more than 30 years In the 1950s, Pitt was one of the few blacks active in defending the growing black population of Great Britain against discrimination and prejudice. In the 1960s and 1970s, he organized to help immigrants and improve race relations. Pitt became the first and only chair of the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination (CARD), an association founded with the encouragement of Martin Luther King Jr. Pitt believed in fighting racism within the existing power structure. In 1959 Pitt sought to represent London's wealthy Hampstead district in Parliament, becoming the first West Indian black to seek a seat in Parliament. After a campaign plagued by racist insinuations, Pitt lost the election. In 1961, however, Pitt won the election representing the ethnically mixed, working-class Hackney district in London's city government, the London County Council (LCC). In 1964 this body was absorbed by the Greater London Council (GLC). He served as deputy chair of the GLC from 1969 to 1970 and in 1974 became the first black chair, a post he held until 1975. Pitt paved the way for the multiracial politics for which the GLC became known. In 1975 Prime Minister Harold Wilson appointed Pitt to the House of Lords as Lord Pitt of Hampstead. According to Pitt himself, however, his most valued honour was his election as president of the British Medical Association from 1985 to 1986, a position few general practitioners achieve. 

stories,westindians

1913-10-03

Person

6221

TEXT

David

Pitt

1994-12-18