Sir Cyril Wilson Black was a British Conservative politician.
16 Facts About Cyril Black
1.
2.
Cyril Black was Member of Parliament for Wimbledon from 1950 to his retirement at the 1970 general election.
3.
Cyril Black resisted liberalisation of laws on divorce, homosexuality, alcohol licensing and gambling, and supported the Baptist church.
4.
Cyril Black was grandfather to Andrew Cyril Black, the gambling entrepreneur, founder of Betfair.
5.
Cyril Black served as a Justice of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant for the County of Greater London.
6.
Cyril Black was chairman of Surrey County Council from 1950 to 1964 and mayor of Merton from 1966 to 1967.
7.
Cyril Black was knighted in 1959 for political and public services in Surrey.
8.
Cyril Black was elected as a Conservative Party Member of the House of Commons at the 1950 general election for the Wimbledon constituency.
9.
Cyril Black held the seat until his retirement at the 1970 general election.
10.
Cyril Black strove unsuccessfully against the Macmillan government's attempts to liberalise gambling laws, launch Premium bonds, and reform the divorce laws.
11.
Cyril Black campaigned in favour of birching petty criminals, and against a wide range of targets, including water fluoridation, the popular BBC comedy show Round the Horne, and immigration.
12.
Cyril Black proposed that every MP who voted for reform should print in his or her next election address that they were "in favour of private sodomy".
13.
Cyril Black was one of a group of 15 Conservative MPs to vote against the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1968.
14.
Cyril Black privately prosecuted the novel Last Exit to Brooklyn, when the government had decided on expert advice not to do so.
15.
Cyril Black won the case in the lower courts, but on appeal the publisher, John Calder, won, and, in the view of The Times, Calder's success virtually ended book censorship in Britain.
16.
Cyril Black brought successful lawsuits against Private Eye for suggesting that he profited from a conflict of interests between his local government and property-development activities, and Socialist Leader for calling him a racist.