The Lord Soper | |
|---|---|
 Portrait byWalter Bird, 1965 | |
| Member of theHouse of Lords | |
| In office May 1965 – December 1998 | |
| Councillor of theGreater London Council | |
| In office April 1964 – May 1965 | |
| President of the Methodist Conference | |
| In office June 1953 – June 1954 | |
| Vice President | Leslie Ward Kay |
| Preceded by | Colin Augustus Roberts |
| Succeeded by | William Russel Shearer |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Donald Oliver Soper (1903-01-31)31 January 1903 Wandsworth,London, United Kingdom |
| Died | 22 December 1998(1998-12-22) (aged 95) London, United Kingdom |
| Party | Labour |
| Spouse | Marie Dean |
| Children | 4 |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation | Minister, councillor |
Donald Oliver Soper, Baron Soper (31 January 1903 – 22 December 1998) was a BritishMethodistminister,socialist andpacifist. He served asPresident of the Methodist Conference in 1953–54. After May 1965 he was apeer in theHouse of Lords.
Historian Martin Wellings states:
His combination of modernist theology, high sacramentalism, and Socialist politics, expressed with insouciant wit and unapologetic élan, thrilled audiences, delighted admirers, and reduced opponents to apoplectic fury.[1]
Soper was born at 36 Knoll Road,Wandsworth,London, the first of the three children of Ernest Frankham Soper (1871–1962), anaverage adjuster inmarine insurance, the son of a tailor, and his wife, Caroline Amelia,née Pilcher (b. 1877), a headmistress and daughter of a builder.[2]
He was educated atAske's School in southLondon, atSt Catharine's College, Cambridge, where he read history, atWesley House theological college, and at theLondon School of Economics, where he took hisPhD. He was an exceptional sportsman who captained his school atfootball,cricket, andboxing, but he withdrew from cricket after he accidentally killed an opposing batsman with a fast delivery when bowling.[2]
Soper offered as a candidate for the Methodist ministry, and while still a probationary minister (in his first appointment), he sought larger congregations by taking to open air preaching in imitation of the founders of Methodism. From 1926 until well into his nineties, he preached at London's centres for free speech,Tower Hill and (from 1942)Speakers' Corner inHyde Park;[3] he was often referred to as "Dr Soapbox" in honour of the outdoor preacher'schief piece of apparatus.[4] He was controversial and quick-thinking, and drew large crowds.[3]
On 3 August 1929, he married Marie Dean. They had four daughters, the youngest of whom, Caroline, was the first wife of the writerTerence Blacker.
Early in his ministry, Soper was radicalised by the inner-city poverty that he witnessed. He became an active member of theLabour Party and much of his preaching was concerned with the political implications of the Christian gospel; late in life, he offended manyConservatives by his fiercely expressed argument that the policies ofMargaret Thatcher were inherently incompatible with Christianity. From 1936 until his retirement in 1978, he was the minister ofKingsway Hall, a "Central hall" within the Methodist Church and the home of theWest London Methodist Mission[1] which exercised a ministry of practical care for marginalised groups such as the homeless, unmarried mothers and alcoholics. In 1952 he was elected as thePresident of the Methodist Conference, the governing body of the Methodist Church, serving in 1953–54.
Soper was avegetarian.[5] As well as being a socialist, he was ateetotaler, a vigorous opponent ofblood sports (he was President of theLeague Against Cruel Sports[3] from 1967 to 1997) andgambling (he criticised theBritish Royal Family's association withhorse racing), and most notably, a pacifist. He joined thePeace Pledge Union in 1937 and preached pacifism throughout theSecond World War, being deemed so effective that he was banned from broadcasting on theBBC. After the War, Soper often appeared on radio and television shows, including becoming a regular presenter on BBC'sThought for the Day. He was critical ofIan Paisley and theFree Presbyterians in Northern Ireland.[6]
He was active in theCampaign for Nuclear Disarmament from its beginnings, and was president of theFellowship of Reconciliation in England for many years until his death. For twenty years he wrote regularly for the socialist magazineTribune, and in 1958 was elected as an alderman (Labour) of theLondon County Council. After the abolition of the LCC, he became an alderman on theGreater London Council (1964–65) and accepted the offer of alife peerage from the Labour government of the day, and so was created on 12 May 1965Baron Soper, ofKingsway in theLondon Borough of Camden.[7] He became the first Methodist minister to sit in theHouse of Lords, an institution whoseexistence he opposed (he referred to it as "proof of the reality of life after death")[8] 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 fromRadio 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".[9]
After he left circuit ministry he became asupernumerary (retired) minister based atHinde 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 programmeQuest into 1978 with priest and journalist[10] Owen Spencer-Thomas.[11]
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 calledHaberdashers' Hatcham College, has a house dedicated to him – the only one to not be named after a headmaster or headmistress.
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