Whilst our parents and grandparents inspired Ann and me to help make the world a better place, I only discovered later in life the source of my campaigning genes. In the 80s I inherited David Lubelski my great-grandfather’s magnificent Silver Tea Service inscribed as follows:-
“Presented to David Lubelski on 29th June 1897 ‘on the occasion of his Silver Wedding
by his employees’
I often wondered why his employees honoured David Lubelski with such a generous gift. It was only in 2009 that I learnt that David Lubelski was a hero of his time and one of the early champions of women’s rights.(Industrial historian Professor Katrina Honeyman)
Trevor Lyttleton’s Address in the History of the Jews in 100 Objects series – Read More
British cuppa makes a historic link between our two jubilees – Read More
David Lubelski’s House of Lords Hansard testimony – Read More
David Lubelski Thoresby Society article – Read More
I thus inherited a tendency to ask awkward questions and hold office holders to account on a wide variety of issues over 70 years.
CAMPAIGNS
For more than five decades I have used the national press to speak truth to power, championing causes from elderly care and loneliness to housing reform, environmental protection and global human rights.
Since my earliest letters in the 1960s — campaigning against Apartheid READ MORE 1, defending our cultural heritage READ MORE 2, pressing successfully for inflation to be taken into account in valuing civil claims READ MORE 3 — I have urged properly funded social care, speedy delivery of Covic vaccine, youth service, volunteerism, and tougher anti-pollution measures, and innovative housing solutions.
These contributions have called for fair treatment for music creators, exposed political hypocrisy and urged support for Ukraine and andthe need to stand against tyranny to ensure our grandchildren inherit our cherished values of freedom democracy and the rule of law
I hope these contributions have helped to keep fairness, integrity and social responsibility on the public agenda.
ANTI-APARTHEID (Article in SECHABA 1969)
THE LAND OF THE OSTRICH – An Outsiders view of Apartheid by Trevor Lyttleton
THE LAND OF THE OSTRICH – Read More
ART FUND
“My first step into the art world”
Plea for fund to save art from export (Guardian June 26 1971).
A LONDON businessman yesterday appealed for a fund to stop British art treasures leaving the country just after Titian’s masterpiece The Death of Actaeon” was sold to an American dealer.
Mr Trevor Lyttleton suggested a state sponsored unit trust art fund to which the public could subscribe.
Its resources would be invested In major art works upon the advice of leading experts, he said. “The art fund, whose managers would have charitable status would guarantee to retain such works in this country and put them on view to the public in galleries and museums,” he said.
“Units of the fund, which should provide an excellent hedge against inflation would be entitled to almost precisely the saine estate duty and gains tax relief and exemption as are now available to works of art of national importance”
Mr. Lyttleton (33) a company solicitor, has taken an active part in charity fund raising but said: ”This is my first step into the art world.”
Jullus Weitzner, the art dealer who was at the centre of the 1908 storm over the sale of a painting by the Italian artist Duetto yesterday paid £190.000 for The Death of Actaeon, at Christie’s London auction rooms.
The 15-year-old dealer told pressmen: “It’s not for me for my daughter” His married daughter Marjorie, said: “It will fit perfectly over my fireplace.”
Inflation ignored – Financial Times 23 June 1975
Sır.-I have heard recently of two claimants whose respective actions have taken four and five years to reach the High Court. Assuming that judgment is awarded in their favour, in each case the plaintiff will receive at least 30 per cent. less than his due in real terms while the defendant, on the other hand, will have benefited by the fall in the value of money and will be paying at least 30 per cent less in real terms than If he had settled the claim at the proper time.
As higher rates of Inflation now prevail it is to be hoped that Parliament will take immediate steps to remove this obvious injustice by introducing the necessary legislation to give the Courts power to take inflation into. account when making awards on civil claims. Trevor Lyttleton, Flat 18, 33. Bryanston Square, W.1.
Since 1975 legislation to address the issue of inflation in valuing civil claims evolved over the years, most notably through the Damages Act 1996 and subsequent updates like the Civil Liability Act 2018 and the impact of inflation is now taken into account to ensure fairness in compensation, reflecting current economic conditions
PUBLISHED CALLS TO ACTION
I’ve been a regular letter writer to the Times and other media for many years, On retiring as Solicitor in 2014 and Chair of Contact the Elderly in 2015, I became more active in speaking truth to power on the wide range of issues shown in the selection below starting with the most recent of my published letters:-
TIMES PUBLISHED LETTERS – Read More
NON-TIMES PUBLISHED LETTERS – Read More
After 40 years campaigning I was delighted that the Government seemed to be placing elderly isolation high on the national agenda when Jeremy Hunt as Health Secretary called the neglect of the elderly “a source of national shame” 18.10.13
I welcomed Hunt’s alarm call next day on ITV (3 minute clip):
Sadly Jeremy Hunt didn’t act on his own alarm call and, much to my dismay, I had to chase up this issue time and time again in letters to the media and successive governments over more than a decade.
CAMPAIGN AGAINST WATER POLLUTION
My early calls for robustly enforced criminal prosecutions for those responsible for sewage discharges were later taken up successfully by The Times Clean Up Campaign (see published letters below)
I hope more of my published calls for action may one day be adopted especially the following:-
King Charles III can offer the PM some pharaonic wisdom
Financial Times 15 Sept 2022 King Charles III can offer the PM some pharaonic wisdom
Our five-year electoral cycle gives a huge advantage to autocratic regimes like China that can make long-term plans while we struggle for 30 years to build a third runway at Heathrow (Report, September 12).
King Charles III is well placed to remind the prime minister that major crises (cost of living, climate change, health and social care, water leakage, sewage discharge, security) require a long-term strategy and the wisdom of the pharaohs: “During the seven good years, the people must give them one-fifth of all the food they grow this way these men will collect all the food during the seven good years and store it in the cities until it is needed.”
Trevor Lyttleton
London NW11, UK
TIMES AND NON- TIMES PUBLISHED LETTERS
Whilst my letters often appeared — with some lead features — in major national and regional newspapers and journals, my first port of call for letters was normally The Times which changed my life in so many ways over 70 years.
The Times front page ads helped me find my first employment as a solicitor, launch my charity in the 60s and The Times endorsed its achievements by making Contact the Elderly Times Charity of the Year on our 50th Anniversary in 2015.
The highest compliment I received from The Times followed publication of my letter in the Spectator below:-
The Spectator 7 June 2023 Toothless inquiries
Sir: You rightly say that inquiries in Britain have become a form of cover-up (‘The politics of panic, June 3). This is clear as we contemplate the delay in reporting on the Grenfell Tower fire of 2017, the £200 million spent on the Bloody Sunday report published 38 years after the event, the seven-year delay in concluding the Chilcot inquiry, and the shaming fact that Sweden has reported on its handling of Covid before our inquiry has even begun.
Instead of spending costly parliamentary and civil service time and astronomical sums on expensive lawyers and experts looking backwards and learning too little far too late from inquiries, our resources should be employed to focus on the future to resolve the long-term problems that are neglected by politicians who seek re-election every four or fie years. Their priorities should include national security, stemming sewage and water leaks, fixing our broken justice system, social care, the NHS, potholed highways, cladding on tower blocks and asbestos in classrooms, instead of leaving these problems for future generations to deal with while parliamentarians kick the can down the road by setting up yet another useless and toothless inquiry to no productive purpose at unacceptable taxpayers’ expense.
Trevor Lyttleton London
This provoked the following response and a kind and much treasured accolade from Andrew Riley and my grateful reply below
On Thu, 8 Jun 2023, 13:16 SM – Times, Times Letters, <[email protected]> wrote:
Hello Trevor,
A good letter in the Spectator, but a shame that you didn’t write to us first, we could have used it. Devalues your currency a bit if you write to all and sundry. Your right to do so of course!
Kind regards
Andrew Riley