Earl of Arran

Arthur Gore, 8th Earl of Arran (1910-1983) was a journalist and Conservative peer. He entered the House of Lords in 1958, soon gaining a reputation as a political outsider noted for his eccentricities. Despite the recommendations of the Wolfenden Committee, homosexual law reform was still very much a taboo subject within Parliament but Arran took a brave step by raising the issue to his fellow peers in December 1965.
The 1967 Sexual Offences Act would take two Parliamentary sessions of contentious debate & backstairs dealing to be placed in the statute book. Praise was bestowed on Arran for his pragmatism in dealing with such entrenched opinions on such a divisive piece of legislation. Privately he was also subjected to a campaign of intimidation that he dealt with, with quiet stoicism. In the years that followed he mainly devoted his time to the cause closest to his heart; the welfare of badgers.