Barrister who was driven to seek justice for all
Roy Roebuck, who lived in Barnsbury for more than 40 years, also served as an MP
Friday, 22nd December 2023 — By Izzy Rowley
Roy Roebuck speaking to binmen
A STRONG sense of justice and wanting to help people was what inspired a barrister and former MP who died on Sunday, aged 94.
Roy Roebuck lived in Barnsbury for more than 40 years following his time as the MP for Harrow East.
Mr Roebuck joined his local Labour Party in Manchester in 1945 at 16 years old.
“He was born in Manchester,” said Gavin Roebuck, Mr Roebuck’s son. “Poverty drove most people at that time [to the Labour Party]. My father left school at 14 so he did very well educating himself.”
Mr Roebuck went on to serve in the Royal Air Force working as a wireless operator in the late 1940s, and then became a journalist before he was ultimately elected as the MP for Harrow East in 1966, which he represented until 1970. He then went on to become a barrister.
“He became a barrister because he had a sense of justice and wanting to do what’s right. He wanted to help people who had no money to have fairness,” said Gavin. “Later on, when he was in his 60s, he decided to do a couple of degrees, an MA and LLM in European management and employment law and study Latin.”
Gavin described his father, who was happily married to the virologist Dr Mary Roebuck, as having “a lively sense of humour. He wasn’t Mr Sober Sides and didn’t take himself too seriously.”
The house was full of thousands of books, with Mr Roebuck preferring fact over fiction.
“He liked to be engaged. He liked to discuss with people, and he was interested in hearing a contrary opinion.
“He was a barrister, so he was accustomed to presenting a case or arguing against one. He loved all that.”
