decided on expert advice not to do so. He 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. Black unsuccessfully campaigned against the publication of D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover. In 1970 he sued an American publisher and authors for libel. They had described him in print as "an evil person engaged in perversions". Black sought £1,000,000 damages and was awarded £43,000. He also 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. Black was chairman of Beaumont Properties Ltd from 1933 to 1980; chairman of the Temperance Permanent Building Society from 1939 to 1973; chairman of M. F. North Ltd 1948 to 1981; chairman of the London Shop Property Trust Ltd from 1951 to 1979; a member of the Board of Governors of Monkton Combe School from 1964 to 1969 and the director of a large number of other companies. His private commercial interests were so extensive – he held 49 directorships – that an unsuccessful attempt was made to ban him from membership of the House of Commons. In a biographical essay for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Patrick Cosgrave wrote, There were ... limits to his intolerance, and he was a man who strove mightily to do good. Nevertheless, he was not an easy man to like. ... In private he could be a reasonable, if over-earnest, conversationalist. But, as he went about his multifarious activities, with a permanent half-sneer on his face, and as he thundered in public against what he called decadence, he was a voice calling in the lonely wilderness. Black died on 29 October 1991. External links (855 noted) Notes and references Notes References 1902 births 1991 deaths Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Deputy Lieutenants of the County of London English Baptists People educated at King's College School, London Members of Surrey County Council Mayors of places in Greater London UK MPs 1950–1951 UK MPs 1951–1955 UK MPs 1955–1959 UK MPs 1959–1964 UK MPs 1964–1966 UK MPs 1966–1970 20th-century Baptists Governors of Monkton Combe School Deputy Lieutenants of Greater London