David Pitt, Baron Pitt of Hampstead
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David Thomas Pitt, Baron Pitt of Hampstead (3 October 1913–14 December 1994) was a civil rights campaigner and Labour politician in the United Kingdom.
Born in Grenada, Pitt first came to Britain in 1933 to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh. After graduating, he returned to the Caribbean to practise medicine in Trinidad, where he helped found the West Indian National Party, which campaigned for West Indian self-government. In 1947, he again travelled to Britain, and settled in London, where his involvement in politics continued.
In the 1959 general election, he was the first black West Indian UK parliamentary candidate, standing as Labour candidate for the north London constituency of Hampstead. In this election, he was defeated by the Conservative candidate, Henry Brooke. Two years later, in 1961, he was elected to the London County Council as member for Hackney, and served on the LCC and its successor, the Greater London Council, until 1975. He was deputy chair of the GLC from 1969-1970, and in 1974 he was the first black person to become chair of the GLC.
Pitt's second attempt to be elected as an MP came in 1970, when he was the Labour candidate for Clapham. Although this had been seen as a safe seat for Labour, the Conservative William Shelton was elected, in an election which saw a national swing away from Labour. It has been suggested that his race was a factor in both general election defeats.
In 1975, the Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, recommended Pitt's appointment to the House of Lords as a life peer, and he was created Baron Pitt of Hampstead, of Hampstead in Greater London and of Hampstead in Grenada. As a member of the House of Lords, he worked for racial equality and improvement of the inner cities. From 1985 to 1986 he was president of the British Medical Association, which Pitt described as his most valued honour.
In 2004, he was named as one of 100 Great Black Britons, as part of Black History Month.
