Donald Soper

Donald Oliver Soper, Baron Soper (31 January 1903 – 22 December 1998) was a British Methodist minister, socialist and pacifist. He served as President of the Methodist Conference in 1953–54. After May 1965 he was a peer in the House of Lords.

Historian Martin Wellings states:

Early life Soper was born at 36 Knoll Road, Wandsworth, London, the first of the three children of Ernest Frankham Soper (1871–1962), an average adjuster in marine insurance, the son of a tailor, and his wife, Caroline Amelia, née Pilcher (b. 1877), a headmistress and daughter of a builder.

He was educated at Aske's School in south London, at St Catharine's College, Cambridge, where he read history, at Wesley House theological college, and at the London School of Economics, where he took his PhD. He was an exceptional sportsman who captained his school at football, cricket, and boxing, but he withdrew from cricket after he accidentally killed an opposing batsman with a fast delivery when bowling. he was often referred to as "Dr Soapbox" in honour of the outdoor preacher's chief piece of apparatus. He was controversial and quick-thinking, and drew large crowds. As well as being a socialist, he was a teetotaler, a vigorous opponent of blood sports (he was President of the League Against Cruel Sports

Activities He was active in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament from its beginnings, and was president of the Fellowship of Reconciliation in England for many years until his death. For twenty years he wrote regularly for the socialist magazine Tribune, and in 1958 was elected as an alderman (Labour) of the London County Council. After the abolition of the LCC, he became an alderman on the Greater London Council (1964–65) and accepted the offer of a life peerage from the Labour government of the day, and so was created on 12 May 1965 Baron Soper, of Kingsway in the London Borough of Camden. He became the first Methodist minister to sit in the House of Lords, an institution whose existence he opposed (he referred to it as "proof of the reality of life after death") but which he was able to use as a platform for the expression of his views.

In 1967, Soper lamented that "To-day we are living in what is the first genuinely pagan age—that is to say, there are so many people, particularly children, who never remember having heard hymns at their mother's knee, as I have, whose first tunes are from Radio One, and not from any hymn book; whose first acquaintance with their friends and relations and other people is not in the Sunday School or in the Church at all, as mine was".

Appearing (centre) with Charlotte Hough, John Finnis and others on After Dark in 1987: "Killing With Care?"

Retirement

After he left circuit ministry he became a supernumerary (retired) minister based at Hinde Street Methodist Church in Marylebone. In 1978 he spoke in depth about his time as a controversial figure on a soapbox at Hyde Park Corner and his hopes for the future in the BBC radio programme Quest into 1978 with priest and journalist Owen Spencer-Thomas.

In his last years, Soper was disabled by severe arthritis and had to use a wheelchair, but he did not allow this to stop him preaching and making public appearances. He died on 22 December 1998, aged 95.

From 2005, his old school, now called Haberdashers' Hatcham College, has a house dedicated to him – the only one to not be named after a headmaster or headmistress.