Eric Lubbock - my family hero

ERIC LUBBOCK

I got into blogging through following the career of my very distant relative Eric Lubbock, whose Blog is at: http://ericavebury.blogspot.com

Quite apart from a fascinating family history link, I have always been an enormous admirer of Eric’s ethics and politics. And we have common interests in humanism, social democracy and Buddhism.

So I was chuffed to see a photo on his Blog of Maori doing the haka at a recent UKLGIG celebration at Sissinghurst, Kent. Let me introduce you then to this lovely, hard-working and self-less man.

Eric Reginald Lubbock, 4th Baron Avebury (born 29 September 1928) is an English politician. A Liberal Member of Parliament from 1962 to 1970, he joined the House of Lords as Baron Avebury in 1971. In 1999, when the House of Lords was reformed, he was elected as a Liberal Democrat representative peer.

Having joined the Liberal Party in 1960 and become a councillor the following year, Eric won a sensational by-election victory at Orpington, Kent on 15 March 1962, with a majority of 7,855. This was a swing of nearly 22% from the Conservatives and brought the number of Liberal MPs to seven.

Many commentators speculated that the Liberals would make a substantial breakthrough at the following general election and this by-election was taken as the start of a Liberal revival. However, the party was hampered by organisational difficulties and progress was slow, with a loss of votes and seats under Harold Wilson’s Labour government.

As the MP for Orpington, he was appointed Chief Whip by Jo Grimond in 1963, a post he held until 1970.

When the party leader Jo Grimond resigned in 1967 Eric Lubbock was one of the three Liberal MPs who stood for the position. Jeremy Thorpe, however, won with six votes to Emlyn Hooson’s and Lubbock’s three apiece.

In the Commons he was on the Speaker’s Commission on Electoral Law in 1964-1966, and proposed STV in multi-member constituencies, only to be voted down by 18-1. He also proposed reducing the voting age to 18, on which two Labour Members supported him.

In 1970, Orpington reverted to its Tory origins. On losing the seat Lubbock said

"In 1962 the wise, far-seeing people of Orpington elected me as their Member; in 1970 the fools threw me out".

He sat on the Royal Commission on Standards of Conduct in Public Life and in 1976 founded the Parliamentary Human Rights Group, which he chaired for the next 21 years.

He is currently a member of the Liberal Democrat Foreign Affairs Team, speaking frequently on conflict resolution and human rights. He was elected to an Honorary Fellowship at Balliol College in 2004.

Lord Avebury is a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association. He frequently raises matters related to British nationality law in Parliament. He has been a strong supporter of the citizenship rights of the solely British ethnic minorities in Hong Kong, and has fought for their rights.

He is also President of the Peru Support Group, and advocates on human rights issues in Peru.

In 2009, Lord Avebury was awarded (with Dr Evan Harris MP) the National Secular Society's Secularist of the Year Award in recognition of his role in the abolition of the common law offense of Blasphemous Libel.

So I’ll make reference to a couple of his recent posts to give you an idea of his wide interests and boundless commitment to social justice across the globe.

ERIC AND SOMALILAND



Eric writes:

Warmest congratulations to Opposition leader Ahmad Muhammad Mahmoud "Silanyo", leader of the Peace, Unity and Development Party (Kulmiye), who has been elected president in the Somalilland Presidential elections.

The National Electoral Commission invited all the political leaders, election observers, officials, media representatives, Guurti, Sultans, elders etc to the announcement of the results, which were as follows:

Kulmiye 2,66906 - 49.59%
Udub 17,8881 - 33.23%
Ucid 92,459 - 17.18%

This is a great achievement for the people of Somaliland, and an example to the region, including particularly to the people of neighbouring Somalia.

How can the UK, the European Union, and of course the African Union, best demonstrate their friendship for Somalilanders and their admiration for the free, peaceful and democratic elections they have staged?

Many people would like to see Somaliland's independence re-recognised, and if the newly elected President raises the matter, let’s hope the African Union will give him a sympathetic hearing.

And again about the UKLGIG.

CELEBRATING WITH THE UK LESBIAN AND GAY IMMIGRATION GROUP


UKLGIG Group Manager Erin Power read the following citation for Eric’s work at the celebration in Sissinghurst:

"The work of UKLGIG has always had an important political component and we could not have achieved our successes without strong political backing.

Lord Avebury has done much outstanding work in tackling social injustice in relation to immigration. His energy is equally, and strongly, spread across many significant issues - however politically appealing or isolating they may be. It is impossible to do justice to his contribution and achievements in a few words.

On wider immigration issues, he led a great deal of the scrutiny of the UK Borders Bill – for example, the automatic deportation provisions would have received little scrutiny without him.

On the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill, he was one of the few, if not the only one, to raise concerns about 'Special Immigration Status', which places asylum seekers who are not protected by the Refugee Convention but can't be returned to their countries of origin, in permanent limbo and destitution.

He was instrumental in retaining discretion with regards to the HC321 (automatic bans); and played a major role in achieving concessions with regards to: the Immigration and Nationality (Fees) (Amendment) Regulations 2008; the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 (Duty to Share Information and Disclosure of Information for Security Purposes) Order 2008; and Immigration (Biometric Registration) Regulations 2008.

He has been consistently vocal on welfare of children and detainees.

On behalf of lesbian and gay asylum seekers, he has been tireless in raising awareness of the perverse situation whereby countries in which gay men and lesbians are known to be persecuted, are nonetheless deemed ‘safe’ by the Home Office.

He continues to fight for the ‘safe’ designation to be lifted and we know will continue to do so under the new government.

Only yesterday he was raising in the House of Lords the very real concern that Refugee and Migrant Justice (formerly the refugee legal centre) may close, leaving many more asylum seekers unrepresented.

Lord Avebury, UKLGIG would like to acknowledge your work on our behalf. Please accept your award for selfless long-term commitment to the pursuit of justice"

POSTSCRIPT – THE FAMILY HISTORY CONNECTION

Eric is a descendant of William Lubbock (1701–54). He is the son of the Honourable Maurice Fox Pitt Lubbock (the sixth son of John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury) and the Honourable Mary Katherine Adelaide Stanley, daughter of Arthur Lyulph Stanley, 5th Baron Sheffield and Stanley of Alderley. His cousin John Lubbock, 3rd Baron Avebury died without a male heir in 1971, and Eric succeeded him.

Eric's eldest son Lyulph is a family history buff and has attempted a fairly comprehensive ‘bang-tail’ muster of all living Lubbocks.

As my father’s mother was born Constance Maud Mary Lubbock, I emailed Lyulph and to my considerable astonishment he was able to furnish me with a Family Tree that included Constance and her marriage to Harry ‘Johnson’ (we now know of course that Harry’s original surname was Shorrocks).

Lyulph was able to tell me that the earliest references to the Lubbock name centre around the parish of Erpingham in Norfolk – and that there is a strong likelihood that we are all related to a single founder – a Hansa Merchant from Lubeck who must have settled in Norfolk, after representing the Hanseatic League in the English wool – Baltic herring trade.

He also pointed out that there are 3 known historic connections between my branch of the family and his own (the North Walsham branch):

1) Barbara Lubbock in my chart married Richard Lubbock in his
2) Webster Lubbock was the son of William Lubbock and Alice Webster. Alice was the sister of his 6 x great grandmother Elizabeth Lubbock (nee Webster)
3) Mary Lubbock, Webster’s wife was he believes from his chart.

He notes that his branch of the family resided in North Walsham for at least two and a half centuries, and that for most of that time they were simply yeoman farmers, if somewhat more well off than many. In the eighteenth century, this branch achieved sufficient prosperity to acquire a large house called Scarborough Hill House in the town.


This house still exists, as a hotel. It was cousins of this branch who had moved slightly south, to the parish of Lammas, who became much wealthier by establishing a family banking house, gaining distinction in the sciences and eventually being awarded the title.

John Lukes

LAKE ROTOITI

In January, earlier in the year, I suggested to Jane that we should spend the last night of our three week stay in the South Island by camping at St. Arnaud in the Nelson Lakes District.

Apart from being struck down by a stomach bug in the middle of the night, we had a great time. The area is fabulously beautiful and well-furnished with wildlife like water birds, eels and fish, and hawks.

The stay reminded me of a Buddhist 5-day retreat or ‘sesshin’ that I had attended almost exactly 14 years before in 1996, at the Department of Conservation Convention Centre that is a stone’s throw from the camping site and lakeside.

As the poem below shows, I got pretty ‘high and philosophical’ on the combination of meditation and the thought of returning to a new relationship that appeared to promise much.

BUSH DRAMA - DHARMA

“A little ‘O’ in the Bush,
A roundel of life complete,
The theatre of plant persuasions,
Careers and sad defeat.

Saplings and seedlings
Competing, seeking the light,
Gorging on litter and sunbeams,
Drunk with growing delight.

Upward and wayward waving,
Fleeing the fallers’ waste,
Seeking the budding way”.

However, I also wrote, as a corrective, after a visit to the shower block:

‘Thinking profound thoughts,
I peed on the end of my towel.
‘Mind the flow!”

My interest in Zen Buddhism went back to 1992 when I joined the small group that used to sit under the encouragement of Roz Mackintosh in Wesley Street, Thorndon.

Among the group was another Englishman John Lukes, who like me had suffered the breakdown of his marriage. Both of us had attempted to turn our trials and constrained circumstances to good account by trying to live more simple and spiritual lives.

I have to say immediately that John was much better at this than I was. He had a natural and quiet dignity – and a real sense of commitment to advancing his understanding that was calmly grounded on otherwise frightening health risks stemming from an old head injury.

As for me, my natural tendencies for exuberance and risk-taking (at that time with a periodic undertow of melancholy) led me astray. The relationship on which I had put so much store in 1996 proved to be too fragile to withstand lost hopes, misconceptions and mishaps.

It was a number of months later then (as I had stopped meditating with the sangha) that I found out that John had died quietly in his sleep in mid-1996 – he must have been around 50 years old.

PICKING UP THE PIECES

Recently I have been irregularly attending the weekly meditation sessions of the same small group. I asked about John Lukes, making the point that I would like to pay my respect at his grave. Nobody knew where his ashes had been interred but there had it seems been a Buddhist ceremony in Wellington. It was suggested that I should try to contact his son in Christchurch.

Eventually, I made contact, offering to write and post an obituary.

Wonderfully, it seems that John’s ashes were scattered off the jetty on the shore of Lake Rotoiti among the indigenous long-finned eels that hovered below. These leathery, slightly translucent creatures (or ‘snigs’ as I would have called them as a boy) are very impressive: being sometimes nearly 2 metres long, living up to 100 years, and prone to silently ‘snitheing’ together at dusk (again as we would say in the Cheshire dialect).

I therefore wrote John a haiku in more conventional English:

“Opaque and shoaling
- eels under the jetty.

Now I know it’s you”.

Roshi John 'Daido' Loori (14th June 1931 - 9th October 2009)

Buddhists seek the path – which is sometimes hidden, sometimes light. Ultimately one has to be a lamp unto oneself – but there are great teachers who shine a pure light. John ‘Daido’ Loori was one of those.

He made me aware that contradictions, uncertainties and trade-offs provide a nexus for much of human experience – but that a good heart is everything. As Buddhism simultaneously teaches: ‘we are nothing special’, though ‘it is no small thing to be born human’.

Sometimes the path can seem narrow and distant, lost in the mountain mist, surrounded by deep pitfalls. But once attained, even for a short spell, it can roll forward like a broad road appearing to stretch ever onwards, putting your feet on solid ground. With your feet on the ground you can be authentic, and as you move forward there is presence and a sense of living in the moment.

I wrote this personal remembrance of Daido for the NZ Zen magazine Manawa:

“As someone who has not been very active recently with the NZ sangha, I feel a bit of a fraud in putting forward some comments on Daido. However, the plea for contributions has overcome my reticence:

He taught me the value of 'compassionate indifference' - perhaps compassionate objectivity or clarity of action are other ways of expressing what I am trying to say.

I had been hooked on the idea that gurus and roshis were inevitably saintly. Clearly, pure in mind and big of heart, they were beyond the norm, and capable of superhuman concern for everyone and everything.

This gave me, as a mere mortal, a good excuse to pretend to be a disciple of the sacred rather than to facing up to dealing with the messy real world and messy real people (where everything in the sacred we inevitably profane – and everything in the real world is sacred).

Daido had a unique ability though to cut through this kind of sophistry.

I once made the mistake at an audience with him of responding to his inquiry about my practice by blurting out that I was getting married. 'Good luck', he observed, and the audience was over.

On another occasion, I confided my concern about the difficulties that sometimes arise in making ethical decisions that bear both on one's one emotional health and the expectations and wellbeing of others.

Sensing my real anxiety, he recounted a story about his personal experience in the Korean War. He had been on sentry duty at a camp that was a possible target of infiltration by North Korean and Chinese troops. Peering across the perimeter of the camp into the night, he heard a sound that could have heralded a hostile raid.

On the other hand, it could have been the half-mad. poverty-stricken old man who came when the camp was quiet to sift through the rubbish.

A shot at the noise might save his comrades from being annihilated if there were indeed intruders - but if he was wrong, the old man would die needlessly.

He didn't shoot and it turned out to be the old man - no one was harmed.

But, as Daido remarked: 'I could not have been held guilty if I had fired at the shadow. I just did my best to make the right decision - that was all I could have done - and after all, I have to bear the knowledge that I might have endangered my colleagues in arms.

If you weigh all the evidence and take decisions with a good heart, you should stand firm and not look back'.

My third anecdote is about attending one of his wonderful public talks at the Downstage Theatre, Wellington. He electrified the audience and everyone who attended was deeply touched. However, I found him outside after the talk shaking and drawing heavily on a cigarette.

He wasn't a saint – just an exceptionally decent and highly committed human being.

With my love and deep respect

Keith Johnson”