British politician (1937–2021)
Trevor Arthur Smith, Baron Smith of Clifton, (14 June 1937 – 24 April 2021) was a British politician, academic and member of the House of Lords. He was the Liberal Democrat spokesman in the House on Northern Ireland and constitutional affairs.
Early life.
Smith was born in the East End of London, the son of Arthur James Smith and Vera Gladys Smith (née Cross). He read Economics at the London School of Economics in 1955-8, graduating with a BSc. He worked as a schoolteacher for the London County Council from 1958-9.
Academic career.
Smith's first academic post was as an Assistant Lecturer at the University of Exeter from 1959–60. He then became Research Officer for the Acton Society Trust in 1960–2, a trust set up by the Joseph Rowntree Social Service Trust in the 1940s "to analyse the implications of the welfare state for liberty and the individual." In 1962, he became a Lecturer in Politics at the University of Hull, where he would remain for the next five years.
In 1967, Smith moved to Queen Mary College at the University of London, where he was to be based for the next 24 years. Initially a Lecturer and then a Senior Lecturer, he was appointed Professor in Political Studies in 1983. He also served as Head of Department in Politics from 1972–85, and was Dean of Social Studies in 1979-82. By the mid-1980s, he was also playing an administrative role in the university as a whole - he was Pro-Principal in 1985–7, Senior Pro-Principal in 1987–9, and Senior Vice-Principal in 1989–91.
Smith was an active member of the Political Studies Association since the 1950s, and was its Chairman in 1988-9, Vice-President in 1989-91, and President in 1991-3.
In 1991, Smith moved to Northern Ireland, to take up the appointment of Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ulster, which he held until 1999. As the university was Northern Ireland's largest employer, Smith was heavily involved in the Northern Ireland peace process throughout the 1990s, taking a non-sectarian "outsider" role.
Political activity.
He was an active member of the Liberal Democrats and its predecessor, the Liberal Party, since 1956. A former Chairman of the Union of Liberal Students, he contested the 1959 General Election in West Lewisham, being the youngest candidate of any party that year.
He was a board member of the Joseph Rowntree Social Service Trust Ltd from 1975, and its Chair from 1987 to 1999; he retired from the board in 2007. During his time as Chair, the Trust saw a significant reorientation of its goals as a non-charitable trust geared towards funding political activity around democratic reform and social justice. In order to reflect this, it was renamed the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust in 1990.
In 1997, he entered the House of Lords as a Liberal Democrat peer, serving as his party's frontbench spokesperson on Northern Ireland from 2000-11. During the 2010-5 coalition government, he emerged as a vocal critic of his party's participation in the coalition, including being one of only four Lib Dem peers to vote against their party's trebling of tuition fees, and calling for the resignation of his party leader, Nick Clegg.
He retired from the House of Lords on 31 January 2019.
Honours.
He was created a Knight Bachelor in the 1996 Birthday Honours for services to higher education, receiving the accolade from The Queen on 3 December 1996. He was created a life peer as Baron Smith of Clifton, of Mountsandel in the County of Londonderry, on 4 November 1997. He was made an Honorary Fellow of Queen Mary University of London in 2003.
He received the following honorary degrees:
Personal life.
Smith married Brenda Susan (née Eustace) in 1960, with whom he had two sons; the marriage was dissolved in 1973. In 1979, he married his second wife, Julia Donnithorne (née Bullock), with whom he had one daughter, Naomi Smith of Best for Britain.
References.
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