Deryck Abel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Deryck Abel | |
|---|---|
| Born | Deryck Robert Endsleigh Abel 9 September 1918 |
| Died | 13 February 1965 (aged 46) |
| Education | London School of Economics London University |
| Political party | Liberal Party |
| Spouses | Gertrude Kent (div. 1962)
|
| Children | 2 |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Battles / wars | World War II |
Deryck Abel (9 September 1918 – 13 February 1965) was a British author, editor and political activist, who was the editor of the Contemporary Review from 1960 until his death.
Deryck Robert Endsleigh Abel was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire to Frederick and Beryl Abel.[1] He came from a family of teachers, craftsmen and clerks; he and his parents moved to North London when he was a small boy.
Abel studied first at Tottenham County School, the pioneering co-educational grammar school in the county of Middlesex,[2] and then at the London School of Economics and London University.[1] He was unusual in his generation of men in that women teachers influenced him profoundly in the sixth form and at the LSE, notably the prominent social and economic historian, Professor Eileen Power.[3]
In World War II he served in the 69th Searchlight Regiment,[1] losing a leg in 1940.[4] While convalescing at the Sussex home of Francis W. Hirst,[5] he prepared A History of British Tariffs, 1923–42,[6] which became the standard work on the subject. He was a founder of the Society for Individual Freedom, which met at the Individualist Bookshop.[7]
With Sir Ernest Benn, and others, Abel was co-author of the Individualist Manifesto (1942), a response to the prevalence of dictatorship in Europe from Spain to the Soviet Union.[8]
The manifesto argued that it was imperative that civil liberties and individual responsibility be rapidly restored in Britain after the war and not eroded further by an ever-expanding bureaucracy. The Manifesto also contended powerfully against restrictive practices by trade unions and the collusion between the state and big business that negated the goal of a wide diffusion of wealth in a property-owning democracy.[7]
