UK: Tributes paid to Lord Avebury, Lib Dem veteran who saved Silbury Hill from right to roam

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He was respected across all faiths – he won the Secularist of the Year award in 2009, the same year he won the Ahmadiyya Muslim Peace Prize.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | UK Desk
Source/Credit: Western Daily Press
By Tristan Cork  | February 14, 2016

The respected Lib Dem peer who inherited the title of the Lord of England's biggest stone circle and owner of Europe's most mysterious man-made hill – has died at the age of 87.

Lord Avebury had been battling illness for more than a year, and tributes were paid across Wiltshire and the wider political world for the MP, who was the longest serving Liberal Democrat peer.

Born Eric Lubbock, he was the MP for Orpington in Kent between 1962 and 1970, having won a spectacular by-election. He famously said, when he lost in the surprise Conservative General Election victory of 1970: "In 1962 the wise, far-seeing people of Orpington elected me as their Member; in 1970 the fools threw me out."
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As the owner of Silbury Hill, he was one of the first landowners to appeal successfully against the 'right to roam' law introduced by the Tony Blair Government, which designated Silbury Hill as a site for open access, just as English Heritage and the National Trust were making steps to stop people climbing up to the top of the hill to help protect it.

"He fought very hard to protect Silbury when the CRoW Act threatened in 2000 and won his appeal, which was a case which should have been fought by English Heritage but was 'overlooked' by them," the Friends spokesman added.

"Eric was also, of course, a tireless campaigner on behalf of human rights. He had been ill for over a year, bravely made arrangements for his resting place and spoke out on assisted dying. A brave, honest and throughly decent human being," he added.

Well-respected and a much-loved voice standing up for human rights, he was an honorary associate of the National Secular Society and a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association, but later became a Buddhist. Among his causes were human rights in Peru and the rights of British citizens of Hong Kong. He was respected across all faiths – he won the Secularist of the Year award in 2009, the same year he won the Ahmadiyya Muslim Peace Prize.



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