The Lord Gavron | |
|---|---|
 Gavron in 2012 | |
| Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal | |
| In office 6 August 1999 – 7 February 2015 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1930-09-13)13 September 1930 |
| Died | 7 February 2015(2015-02-07) (aged 84) |
| Political party | Labour |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Children | Simon Gavron Jeremy Gavron Sarah Gavron |
Robert Gavron, Baron GavronCBE FRSL (13 September 1930 – 7 February 2015) was a British printing millionaire,philanthropist and aLabourlife peer.
Gavron was the eldest son of Nathan Gavron, a patent lawyer, and Leah Gavron. His parents were secular, middle-class Jews who had immigrated toLondon from Russia and Lithuania.[1] He was brought up inHampstead Garden Suburb, north London, and studied atLeighton Park School inReading and then atSt Peter's College, Oxford. Gavron became abarrister and was called to the bar byMiddle Temple in 1955.[2]
Gavron borrowed £5,000 to purchase a failing publishing house in 1964. He renamed it theSt Ives Group and served as chairman from 1964 to 1993, taking it public in 1985 and growing it into a £350m company. Gavron's savvy management of St Ives included developing a positive workplace culture through friendly relationships with his employees and industry unions.[1]
He was the director of Octopus Publishing between 1975 and 1987 and Electra Management from 1981 to 1992. He was also the proprietor of theCarcanet Press from 1983 to 2015 and served as the chairman of theFolio Society, (1982–2015) and the National Gallery Co Ltd (1996–1998). He was both chairman of theGuardian Media Group and a trustee of theScott Trust between 1997 and 2000.[2]
Gavron was chairman of theOpen College of the Arts (1991–1996), a director of theRoyal Opera House (1992–1998), a trustee of theNational Gallery (1994–2001), and of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation (1987–2005). He was a governor of theLondon School of Economics (1997–2002) and chaired his own charitable trust, the Robert Gavron Charitable Trust (1974–2015). He was in 1996 elected an Honorary Fellow of theRoyal Society of Literature.[3]
Gavron was active in the Labour Party and a financial contributor to theLabour Leader's Office Fund, run byLord Levy, which financedTony Blair's private office before the1997 General Election.[citation needed] He was also a trustee of the center-leftInstitute of Public Policy Research from 1991 and the treasurer from 1994; during that time, the IPPR was influential in policy debates in the Labour Party which came to power in 1997.[1]
He was appointed aCommander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the1990 Birthday Honours,[4] and received a life peerage asBaron Gavron,ofHighgate in theLondon Borough of Camden, on 6 August 1999.[5]Gavron served on House of Lords, UK Parliament, Works of Art Committee from 1999 to 2003 and 2005 – 2009.[6] Gavron was a member of theGroucho and theMCC.[2]
Gavron was married three times.[2] In 1955, he marriedHannah Fyvel, the daughter ofT. R. Fyvel who was literary editor ofTribune andThe Jewish Chronicle. They had two sons before she took her own life in 1965. One son, Jeremy Gavron, a novelist, has written a book about the tragedy.[7]
In 1967, Gavron marriedFelicia Nicolette Coates, who later became a Labour member of theLondon Assembly, and was later known as Nicky Gavron. Before they divorced in 1987, the couple had two daughters including the film directorSarah Gavron. In 1989, Gavron married Katherine Gardiner (née Macnair).[2]
AnMCC member, Gavron was a great supporter of cricket, especially inBarbados where he was an honorary life member of theBarbados Cricket Association.[8] He established the Lord Gavron Scholarship for promising young cricketers in 2001. Recipients are presented with a trophy, a computer, cricket equipment and an attachment to a cricket club overseas or the opportunity to study at a local institution.[9] Since 2010 two players, usually winners of the award, have spent a season withSefton Park and Wavertree cricket clubs in England.[10][11][12] Winners of the award who have gone on to play Test cricket for the West Indies includeKemar Roach,Kraigg Brathwaite,Jason Holder,Jomel Warrican,Shane Dowrich andShai Hope.
Having survived cancer and heart surgery, Gavron died of a heart attack on 7 February 2015 after playing tennis.[13][2]
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