Deryck Abel

Deryck Robert Endsleigh Abel (9 September 1918–13 February 1965) was a British author, editor and political activist.

Abel studied at Tottenham County School, the London School of Economics and London University, where the prominent social and economic historian, Professor Eileen Power, was a strong influence. He fought in World War II, losing a leg in 1940. While convalescing at the Sussex home of Francis W. Hirst, he prepared A History of British Tariffs, 1923-42, which became the standard work on the subject. He was a founder of the Society for Individual Freedom, which met at the Individualist Bookshop. With Sir Ernest Benn, Francis Hirst and Donovan Touche, Abel was co-author of the Individualist Manifesto (1942). This argued that it was imperative that civil liberties and individual responsibility be restored after the war and not eroded further by an ever-expanding bureaucracy. The Manifesto argued further against restrictive practices of trade unions and the collusion between the state and big business that negated the goal of a wide diffusion of wealth in a property-owning democracy.

From the sixth form onwards, Abel was active in the Liberal Party, standing unsuccessfully in St Albans at the 1950 general election and Torquay in 1951. He shared the ambition of other activists like Lord Rea, Sir Andrew McFadyean and Leonard Behrens of reshaping and reviving the Liberal Party by leaving behind the internecine divisions of the inter-war period and making the case for a reconciliation of traditions of Gladstonian fiscal policy, individualism and the welfare state collectivism of Sir William Beveridge. In 1945 he resigned as Secretary and Editor of the Individualist Society to become Secretary of the Free Trade Union. He also became editor of the Free Trader, for which he wrote regularly. He authored four books, including a centennial business history (The House of Sage 1860-1960). He campaigned for a Liberty of the Subject Bill, and was Honorary Treasurer of the Freedom Defense Fund in the Willcock Identity Card case (1951).

During the 1950s, Abel was a leading proponent of the construction of a Channel Tunnel, linking Britain with France, and published a book on the history and engineering of the tunnel project. From 1957 to 1959, he served as Chairman of the Liberal Party; in 1959 he headed the poll in the election for its Executive. He also stood unsuccessfully in Worthing at the 1959 general election. Meanwhile, the election of 1956 of Jo Grimond as party leader reanimated the Liberal Party, ushering in a partial revival and foreshadowing a still-continuing struggle to establish a viable three-party system. In 1959, Abel resigned from the Free Trade Union and the Free Trader, following their takeover by supporters of Oliver Smedley who, contending that the Conservative Party was pseudo-socialist, sought to promote right-wing ideas through the Liberal Party.

In 1944 Abel married a school friend, Gertrude Kent, a teacher and musician, with whom he had one son and one daughter. The marriage was dissolved in 1962. He then married Betty Edwards, a lecturer and member of the editorial staff of the Contemporary Review,. This was a monthly publication of which he served as editor from 1960 to 1965, and where he encouraged articles on such diverse themes as economic integration and the EEC, liberal internationalism, proportional representation, employee shareholding, and worker representation on the boards of enterprises. He died prematurely at 46, his health never having recovered from his wartime experiences.