Richard Malcolm Ellis Stone (9 March 1937 – 5 March 2024) was a British medical doctor, social campaigner and philanthropist. Stone was best known for his association with the

Runnymede Trust The Runnymede Trust is a British race equality and civil rights think tank. It was founded by Jim Rose and Anthony Lester as an independent source for generating intelligence for a multi-ethnic Britain through research, network building, lead ...

and the

Jewish Council for Racial Equality HIAS+JCORE (formerly the Jewish Council for Racial Equality, JCORE) is a Jewish organisation which provides a Jewish voice on refugee and asylum issues in the UK. HIAS+JCORE campaigns on refugee and asylum issues, including drawing connections ...

on issues of race and politics, as well as

race and society Social interpretations of race regard the common categorizations of people into different races. Race is often culturally understood to be rigid categories ( Black, White, Pasifika, Asian, etc) in which people can be classified based on biolog ...

more generally in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. Stone was appointed to the panel of the

Stephen Lawrence Stephen Adrian Lawrence (13September 1974 – 22April 1993) was an 18-year-old black British citizen from Plumstead, southeast London, who was murdered in a racially motivated attack while waiting for a bus on Well Hall Road, Eltham, on the ...

inquiry; a case involving a Black teenager who was murdered in London in 1993; which eventually led to the Macpherson Report, which defined the British Metropolitan Police's response to the incident as "

institutionally racist Institutional racism, also known as systemic racism, is a form of institutional discrimination based on Race (human categorization), race or ethnic group and can include policies and practices that exist throughout a whole society or organizati ...

." Stone was also noted for his association with the Jewish interfaith group

The Woolf Institute The Woolf Institute is an academic institute in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1998 by Edward Kessler MBE and Martin Forward, and now located in central Cambridge on the Westminster College, Cambridge, Westminster College Site, it is dedicated to ...

. Stone was born on 9 March 1937 to Joseph Stone, Baron Stone and his wife Beryl. Joseph Stone (born Silverstone) was born in Wales to a British Jewish family. Richard Stone's father was a medical practitioner and after relocating to

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, England, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, located mainly in the London Borough of Camden, with a small part in the London Borough of Barnet. It borders Highgate and Golders Green to the north, Belsiz ...

acted as the personal physician to

Harold Wilson James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx (11 March 1916 – 23 May 1995) was a British statesman and Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, from 1964 to 1970 and again from 197 ...

, the two-times

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister Advice (constitutional law), advises the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, sovereign on the exercise of much of the Royal prerogative ...

for the Labour Party from 1964 to 1970 and again from 1974 to 1976. Other close family members of Richard Stone, influential in British society included his uncle Arnold Silverstone, Baron Ashdown, who was involved with the Conservative Party during the time that

Edward Heath Sir Edward Richard George Heath (9 July 1916 – 17 July 2005) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1965 ...

was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and another uncle

Sidney Bernstein, Baron Bernstein Sidney Lewis Bernstein, Baron Bernstein (30 January 1899 – 5 February 1993) was a British businessman and media executive who was the founding chairman of the London-based Granada plc, Granada Group and the founder of the Manchester-based ITV ...

, who was Chairman of

Granada Television ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV (TV network), ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire on weekdays only, as ABC Weekend TV, ...

, playing a major role in the development of commercial television and was a Labour Party life-peer. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

in 1945, he had produced the ''

German Concentration Camps Factual Survey ''German Concentration Camps Factual Survey'' is the official British documentary film on the Nazi concentration camps, based on footage shot by the Allied forces in 1945. The film was produced by Sidney Bernstein, then with the British Minist ...

'' documentary, in association with the

Psychological Warfare Division The Psychological Warfare Division of Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (PWD/SHAEF or SHAEF/PWD) was a joint Anglo-American organization set-up in World War II tasked with conducting (predominantly) white tactical psychological war ...

. Consequently, Stone is also related to

Alexander Bernstein, Baron Bernstein of Craigweil Alexander Bernstein, Baron Bernstein of Craigweil (15 March 1936 – 13 April 2010) was a British television executive and Labour member of the House of Lords. Life Descended from Latvian Jewish immigrants and educated at Stowe School then ...

, another Labour Party life-peer who was among the financiers of Michael Levy's

Labour Leader's Office Fund The Labour Leader's Office Fund was a blind trust established and run by Lord Levy to finance Tony Blair's work in opposition before the 1997 general election. Contributors to it included the millionaires Sir Trevor Chinn, Sir Emmanuel Kaye, ...

during the

New Labour New Labour is the political philosophy that dominated the history of the British Labour Party from the mid-late 1990s to 2010 under the leadership of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The term originated in a conference slogan first used by the ...

-era while

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He was Leader ...

was British Prime Minister.

Anti-racism and inter-faith work

Stone worked as a political activist on issues of race and politics, as well as

in the

. He was in the campaign arising around the

murder after sitting on the panel of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry. Stone served as a Cabinet Advisor to the Mayor of London, President of the Jewish Council for Racial Equality, and spent five years on the

's ‘Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia’, from 2000 to 2004 as chair. He was also a trustee and vice-Chair of the Runnymede Trust and a Council and Board member of Liberty. For 14 years he was the chair of the Islamophobia Commission, set up by the

in 1996, working with British Muslims. Stone was a member of the Home Office's Working Groups on Tackling Extremism Together. Much of his work was to bring together British Jews and British Muslims. He was a founding trustee of the Maimonides Foundation in 1985 and in 2004 he founded Alif-Aleph UK (British Muslims and British Jews). Stone was an Honorary Fellow and Inter Faith Patron of the Woolf Institute, a Centre for Muslim-Jewish Relations at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

and a visiting fellow in the criminology department of the

University of Westminster The University of Westminster is a public university, public university based in London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1838 as the Royal Polytechnic Institution, it was the first Polytechnic (United Kingdom), polytechnic to open in London. The Po ...

Stephen Lawrence Inquiry

In the '

Inquiry' into racism in policing from 1997–99, Stone was appointed to the panel of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, which was led by Sir William Macpherson. In 2013 he published the book ''Hidden Stories of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry'', documenting his personal experience on the Inquiry and raising concerns about the way the Inquiry was managed. In 2003–04 he sat on the panel of the NHS David Bennett Inquiry.

Personal life and death

In 2010 Stone was appointed an OBE for "public and voluntary" service. Stone died on 5 March 2024, at the age of 86.

References

External links

Richard Stone Archive

Richard Stone

Hidden Stories
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stone, Richard 1937 births 2024 deaths English Jews Jewish British anti-racism activists British anti-racism activists Racially motivated violence in England Racism in the United Kingdom Officers of the Order of the British Empire 20th-century British medical doctors

Anti-racism and inter-faith work

Stephen Lawrence Inquiry

Personal life and death

See also

References

External links