hit me, as it would show others what hunting people are like." Instead the man rode off. Johnson worked with others in the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to try to persuade it to condemn fox hunting. The society disapproved of the campaign and in 1961 decided to purge itself of the leaders. Johnson was summoned before a special council in July 1961 and asked to explain his "conduct prejudicial to the society"; the outcome was his expulsion. He moved on to the League Against Cruel Sports of which he became Vice-President; he supported direct action by squatting in the roads in front of hunts, arguing that the result of any protesters being killed was that the huntsman "stand a very fine chance of hanging or imprisonment". Later politics Having joined the Liberal Party in 1962, Johnson was adopted as their candidate for the Brighton Pavilion constituency. However, he soon resigned the candidature. After the 1964 general election he rejoined the Conservative Party, arguing that the party in opposition was rethinking its policy in a "radically more progressive" direction which was in line with his ideas. He offered himself for selection again as the Conservative candidate for Kemptown in 1965; the executive of the association declined to shortlist him but were over-ruled by the membership at large. In the final selection the local party rejected Johnson. In 1965 he contributed to Patrick Moore's book "Against Hunting". His political stances became more left-wing, as he joined the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and dismayed his colleagues in the property development business by opposing the Brighton bypass road. In the 1980s he became a supporter of the Labour Party. Retirement Johnson rounded off his business career as a director of the Alliance Building Society from 1960 to 1983, prior to its merger into the Alliance & Leicester. He retired to the Isle of Man where he was a director of the Alliance & Leicester's local branch from 1992 to 1996. References 1910 births 2000 deaths Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1950–1951 UK MPs 1951–1955 UK MPs 1955–1959 English solicitors Councillors in East Sussex People educated at Brighton College People educated at Highgate School 20th-century British lawyers 20th-century English lawyers People from Ditchling British Army personnel of World War II Royal Artillery officers