Leo Abse

Labour MP who championed gay rights and divorce reform

Born:

1917

Died:

2008

Place of Birth:

Cardiff

School:

Howard Gardens High School

Famous For:

Labour MP who championed gay rights

Biography:

A flamboyant lawyer and Labour MP who championed gay rights, divorce reform and the end of capital punishment, Leo Abse died in August 2008 at the age of 91.

Born in Cardiff, Leopold Abse was the grandson of Jewish immigrants who settled in Wales in the 1870s.

His paternal grandfather had built up a chain of cinemas across south Wales, but following his death the business went into decline to a point where the young Leo was sent to work in a factory after leaving school to help the family finances.

Following the outbreak of war Abse served with the RAF in the Middle East, East Africa and Italy.

On demobilisation he qualified as a solicitor with the help of an ex-serviceman's grant and set up his own practice in Cardiff, which survives to this day as Leo Abse and Cohen.

A socialist from an early age, Abse was arrested for political activities in 1944 after British servicemen in Cairo set up a "Forces Parliament" to debate the kind of postwar society they wanted to see.

In the early 1950s he became chairman of Cardiff Labour Party and later a councillor.

Abse unsucessfully fought the safe Tory parliamentary seat of Cardiff North in 1955 before being elected MP for Pontypool in a by-election in 1958.

He made his mark as an independently minded backbencher of liberal views, promoting legislation to simplify divorce, legalise gay sex, and end capital punishment.

A popular figure who was elected chairman of the Welsh Labour MPs in 1971, he was a fierce opponent of devolution, claiming it would be hijacked by Welsh language "fanatics".

In 1983 Abse won the newly-named seat of Torfaen but retired from Parliament at the 1987 election.

He turned his hand to writing books based on his interest in psychoanalysis, including a "psycho-biography" of the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Abse had two children with his first wife, the artist Marjorie Davies, who died in 1996.

Following her death, Abse scandalised the tabloid press in 2000 by marrying Ania Czepulkowska, a young Polish artist more than fifty years his junior.

Moment of Glory:

Hailed as a champion of gay rights and other liberal causes

your comments

David
As a gay man I sincerely owe my wellbeing to this political hero of mine. He ensures I enjoy the liberties and freedom that sadly were not afforded to the gay community pre 1967.

Linda Malcolm, Cornwall
I was born in 1952 and lived in Pontypool, and Leo Abse's name I grew up with. My parents adored him as I am sure the rest of Pontypool did! It was Leo this and Leo that and Leo for Prime Minister! A truly wonderful man - I wished I had met him.

Curator, Pontypool Museum
Look out in May 2009 - the Pontypool Museum is to launch an exhibition on the life of Leo Abse. The exhibition is to be called The Poet and The Politician and is to look at the life and work of two of Torfaen's most famous people, the poet Myfanwy Haycock and the politician Leo Abse. The exhibition is in collaboration with David Wynne Williams and Ania Abse.

Jon Johanson in Nashville
I remember Mr Abse, not as the successful policitian but as a man, a friend of my father's. As an annoying 6 year old, I would sit on his lap in his office or my father's whilst they would talked. He was always a gentleman, warm and kindhearted and I am truly sorry for his passing. My thoughts are with his family.

Jeremy Williams
Rest In Peace Leo. You were an inspiration to all. The world owes you a debt of gratitude.

Jeremy Williams
Rest In Peace Leo. You were an inspiration to all.The world owes you a debt of gratitude.

Jim Perrin, Ariege
The percipience of Leo's "psycho-biography" of Margaret Thatcher was brought home to me by a correspondent from Grantham who wrote to me after a contribution I'd made to the R4 series "Reading Aloud" in 1993. I replied to his very pleasant letter with the jokey comment that I wouldn't normally be writing to anyone from Grantham. His response was that he knew exactly what I meant. Of Leo's own character, the glowing assessment by his younger brother Dannie in the latter's marvellous bildungsroman "Ash on a Young Man's Sleeve" (1954) is a fitting personal epitaph. Wales has lost one of its great and independent spirits.

MR L.G.BISHOP PONTYPOOL
Leo Abse was a man who did great things for others,what an example to us all,the world is a sadder place for his passing.

Jeremy Williams
Rest In Peace Leo. You were an inspiration to all. The world owes you a debt of gratitude.

Jon Johanson, Nashville, USA
I remember Mr Abse not as the successful policitian but as a man, a friend of my father's. As an annoying 6 year old I would sit on his lap in his office or my father's whilst they would talk. He was always a gentleman, warm and kindhearted and I am truly sorry for his passing. My thoughts are with his family.

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