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Eric Lubbock (4th Baron Avebury) was born in September 1928, the son of the Hon. Maurice Fox Pitt Lubbock and the Hon. Mary Katherine Adelaide Stanley. He was educated in Toronto, and at Harrow and Oxford University. He served in the Welsh Guards, 1949-51, and then worked for Rolls Royce in the aero-engineering division. He joined the Liberal Party in 1960 and won a spectacular and famous by-election for the party at Orpington in March 1962, retaining the seat until 1970. He was Liberal Party Whip, 1963-70, and also chaired the Parliamentary Civil Liberties Group, 1964-70. He succeeded his cousin as 4th Baron Avebury in 1971. He was a member of the Institute of Race Relations, 1972-74, and of the Royal Commission on Standards of Conduct in Public Life, 1974-76. He became chairman of the British Parliamentary Human Rights Group in 1976 and continued in the role for 21 years. He acted as Liberal Spokesman on Immigration and Race Relations, 1971-83, and sat as a Liberal Democrat peer in the House of Lords, ultimately becoming the longest-serving Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords. He was a member of the Liberal Democrat Foreign Affairs Team, specialising in conflict resolution and human rights.

He was a Buddhist, a supporter of the British Humanist Association and an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society. He also enjoyed a successful business career in computing. He was involved with various pressure groups concerned with human rights in countries such as Tibet, Indonesia, East Timor and Bangladesh, the rights of Kurdish and Armenian people in Turkey, and the rights of travellers and Romany people. In 2004, he was elected to an Honorary Fellowship at Balliol College, Oxford and in 2009 was a joint recipient of the Secularist of the Year Award from the National Secular Society and was awarded the Ahmadiyya Muslim Peace Prize. More recently, Lord Avebury was a Co-Chair of the CHT (Chittagong Hill Tracts) Commission, President of the Peru Support Group and a Patron of Prisoners Abroad. In 2010, he was one of the signatories to an open letter opposing the UK state visit of Pope Benedict XVI.

Lord Avebury became ill from myelofibrosis just over a year before his death and spoke publicly about his support for assisted dying, which he hoped would be legalised. He died in London on 14 February 2016.

Description:

This large collection predominantly contains subject files relating to various topics, case files relating to Lord Avebury's Orpington constituency, and various files relating to prisons, detention and detainees.