learie nicholas constantine, baron constantine, (21 september 19011 july 1971) was a west indian cricketer, lawyer and politician who served as trinidad's high commissioner to the united kingdom and became the uk's first black peer. he played 18 test matches before the second world war and took the west indies' first wicket in test cricket. an advocate against racial discrimination, in later life he was influential in the passing of the 1965 race relations act in britain. he was knighted in 1962 and made a life peer in 1969.