EditGeneral Information
After the
Wolfenden Report was published in 1957, a letter from Dr R. D. Reid of Wells, was published in the
Spectator in January 1958, and called for the setting up of a society to help the victims of the police targeting of gay men. (The letter is reproduced in part in
Allan Horsfall, (1988), “Battling for Wolfenden”, pages 17-18).
A. E. Dyson reacted to this by drafting a letter to
The Times which was published on March 7 1958. It called for reform of the law and was signed by 33 distinguished people including Lord Atlee, A. J. Ayer, Bertrand Russell, and Angus Wilson. The letter is reproduced in
Antony Grey, (1992), “Quest for Justice”, pages 26-27. The resulting correspondence brought those who supported the Wolfenden Report together so that the Homosexual Law Reform Society was formally founded on May 12 1958.
The surgeon, sexologist, and psychiatrist Kenneth Walker became the first chair of the executive committee. Tony Dyson became the vice-chair. Other original members were Ambrose Appelbe, Canon John Collins, Victor Gollancz, Jacquetta Hawkes, Dr W. Lindesay Neustatter, C. H. Rolph (Bill Hewitt), Stephen Spender, Dr. E. B. Strauss, and the MP Kenneth Younger. Most of the original founders were not homosexual. Advertisements were put in classified columns inviting people who supported the Wolfenden Report to contact the Homosexual Law Reform Society. This resulted in Tony Dyson gathering around himself a core of active helpers including
Antony Grey, Nigel Bryant (a City businessman), and Duncan Wright (an architect). Len Smith and Reiss Howard allowed the house that they shared at 219 Liverpool Road in Islington to be used for the Society’s business. This was despite the likelihood of police surveillance and the danger of possible arrest.
In May 1958 the parallel charity organisation,
The Albany Trust was set up. In October 1958 the Albany Trust/HLRS opened an office at 32 Shaftesbury Avenue on the second floor of the block forming part of the Trocadero building, then owned by J. Lyons, Corner House caterers. The Albany Trust/HLRS also employed the married clergyman Andrew Hallidie Smith as their first full-time salaried secretary. Andrew Hallidie Smith circulated the pamphlet
Homosexuals and the Law, which was mainly drafted by
Peter Wildeblood, to MPs in preparation for their first debate on the Wolfenden Report in November 1958. However, it became clear that the government planned to block any reforms of homosexual law. The arrest six days prior to the debate of the Junior Foregn Office Minister Ian Harvey for gross indecency in St James’s Park with a soldier may not have been helpful.
On May 12, 1960 the HLRS held its first public meeting in Caxton Hall in central London, and over 1000 people attended. This was in preparation for the first debate by MPs on just the homosexual aspects of the Wolfenden Report. From 1960 to 1962 Venetia and John Newall were the joint secretaries of the HLRS. In 1962
Antony Grey became the acting secretary, which was turned into a full appointment in the spring of 1963. There was a question of the appropriateness of his appointment because he was a gay man who was living with another man. The Trustees were concerned that he could be subject to the same police attention and possible arrest that the organisation was trying to bring to an end. During this time Antony Grey started the newsletter
Spectrum which appeared at least four times a year between October 1963 and October 1970. The most dramatic period of the history of the HLRS was during the campaign which led to the passing of the
1967 Sexual Offences Act. However, many people saw the new law as weak, and blamed the HLRS for the watering down of the proposals in the Wolfenden Report. Antony Grey left his job with the Albany Trust/HLRS in September 1970, and
Michael De-la-Noy was appointed as the new director. After a year Michael De-la-Noy left and Antony Grey returned. This was not the last ocassion over a number of years when Antony Grey had to return to help out in a crisis. In March 1970 the HLRS reconstituted itself as the Sexual Law Reform Society (SLRS).
EditBibliography
Antony Grey, (1992), “Quest for Justice” Allan Horsfall, (1988), “Battling for Wolfenden”,
in Radical Records.
EditPress Cuttings
Sir Kenneth Robinson - 19 March 1911 to 16 February 1996 by Antony Grey in The Pink Paper, 1996, March 8, issue 420, page 6. “Sir Kenneth Robinson, who has died aged 84, was a Parliamentary champion of homosexual law reform long before it was a fashionable or a vote-winning cause.” “In June 1960, as a Labour back-bencher, he introduced the first full-scale Commons debate on the Wolfenden Report’s proposals to end the law which criminalised consenting sex between men in private.” “Although his motion was overwhelmingly defeated by a majority of more than two to one, he made a notably compassionate and sensible speech. Later, he was an invaluable member of the Homosexual Law Reform Society’s executive committee until he became Minister of Health in Harold Wilson’s first government.”