Allan Horsfall

Who was Allan Horsfall?

Allan Horsfall was a British gay rights campaigner and founder of the North West Committee for Homosexual Law Reform, which became the Campaign for Homosexual Equality.

Horsfall was born in Laneshaw Bridge, Lancashire, and raised by grandparents in the Yorkshire Moors. He described his grandparents as "god-fearing Conservatives and fervent upholders of law and order". Following three years service in the Royal Air Force, he worked as a clerk for the National Coal Board. In 1956, following the Suez Crisis, he joined the Labour Party and became a councillor in Nelson, Lancashire. In 1958, he started campaigning for the Homosexual Law Reform Society to implement the findings of the Wolfenden Report.

In 1964, Horsfall became one of the founders of the North West Committee for Homosexual Law Reform. In the 1970s, the North West Committee became the Campaign for Homosexual Equality. In comparison to the radical Gay Liberation Front which had formed in 1970, CHE was a much more respectable and middle class campaigning group. Horsfall ran CHE from 1971 to 1974 and then became president for life.

During the 1970s, Horsfall attempted to set up 'Esquire Clubs', co-owned social clubs built on the model of working men's clubs for lesbians and gay men, but was not successful.