Black was born in
Kensington on 8 April 1902, one of the six children of Robert Wilson Black (1871–1951) and his wife Annie Louise (
née North). He was educated at
King's College School. He qualified as a
chartered surveyor and became a successful property developer, making himself a millionaire before he reached the age of forty. He was elected as a
Conservative Party Member of the House of Commons at the
1950 general election for the
Wimbledon constituency. He held the seat until his retirement at the
1970 general election. the popular
BBC comedy show
Round the Horne, and immigration.. He proposed that every MP who voted for reform should print in his or her next election address that they were "in favour of private sodomy". Black privately prosecuted the novel
Last Exit to Brooklyn, when the government had 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. 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. 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, Black died on 29 October 1991. ==External links==