Ian Horobin

Sir Ian Macdonald Horobin (16 November 1899 – 5 June 1976) was a British Conservative Party politician, poet, and veteran of the First and Second World Wars.

[1] In 1923, Horobin became the warden of the Mansfield House University Settlement in London's East End, which worked with vulnerable young men and children.

Horobin helped raise over £500,000 for the settlement, and left it when he was elected as the National Member of Parliament (MP) for Southwark Central, a seat he held until 1935.

[3] In 1935 a judge found in favour of Horobin in a case of trespass at his home in Essex, Blue House Farm in Lambourne End.

[5] It was announced on 29 March 1962 that Horobin was to receive a life peerage,[6] but he withdrew his acceptance on 13 April,[7] stating that the demands of the role would be too much for him.

Horobin had told the secretary of the settlement that his relationships with boys had been going on for over 40 years and described homosexuals as "... us poor devils who are born like this; nothing can change me.

"[12] Unrepentant, Horobin told his friend John Betjeman: "I broke the law with me eyes open all my life until I went to prison.