François Lafitte

François Lafitte (3 August 1913—21 November 2002) was a French-born British political activist, social researcher, professor and abortion lobbyist. He was professor of social policy and administration at Birmingham University from 1958 to 1980 and chaired the British Pregnancy Advisory Service from 1968 to 1988.

In the 1930s, he was a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain, but left to join the elite think-tank, the Political and Economic Planning (PEP). As a member of the editorial board of The Times, Lafitte developed a close relationship with the Attlee ministry as an advocate of Keynsian economics and the welfare state. He played a significant role behind the scenes in lobbying for the legalisation of abortion in the United Kingdom, being associated with the Family Planning Association.

Background Lafitte's natural father was John Armistead Collier (1874—1947), an American anarchist political activist and his mother was Françoise Lafitte (better known as Françoise Delisle), a French anarchist and suffragette. According to The Guardian, "Throughout his life François sometimes indicated that he thought of himself as an adopted son of Havelock."

Politics After school, Lafitte was able to receive a privileged higher education at Worcester College, Oxford University. Although he had grown up in a radical political background anyway, he made his first independent forays into political activism by joining the October Club at Oxford University. The October Club; named for the Bolshevik's October Revolution in Russia; was a Marxist organisation and most of its members belonged to the Communist Party of Great Britain (which Lafitte himself joined too). He left the party in 1937.

Personal life François Lafitte married Eileen Saville in 1939 and had only one child together, Nicholas Lafitte, who died by suicide in his late 20s. The couple remained together for the rest of their lives, with Eileen dying in 1996.