Earl of Sandwich - Parliamentary Tribute by David (Lord) Alton

A Memorial Service To Celebrate the Life of the Earl of Sandwich - John Sandwich took place yesterday, September 16th 2025, in St Margaret's, Parliament's Parish Church, Westminster. In the absence of Lord Alton, because of his spinal fracture and other injuries, his Tribute was read by the Convenor of the Crossbench Peers, the Earl of Kinnoull.

Celebrating the Life of John Sandwich.

On February 1st it was announced that John - the 11th Earl of Sandwich - had died peacefully in his sleep. For Caroline and John's family this has left an unfillable void in their lives.

Although I feel inadequate to the task, I will try to do justice to an exemplary parliamentarian who came from the highest traditions of public service.

Over these past six months - with wars raging in Sudan, Gaza and Ukraine; with military dictators crushing the people of Burma; with 120 million forcibly displaced refugees and internally displaced people cut loose from their homes, more than one in every 67 people on Earth; with small boats and criminal gangs profiteering from human trafficking; with further cuts to our development budget; and with dictators and war lords and extreme factions feeding off rogue ideologies, poverty and deep despair - there have been all too many occasions on which John would have spoken and whose measured voice would have made us search our consciences and look for solutions based on our common humanity.

John's contributions in the House of Lords were always shaped by a combination of insight, wisdom, and firsthand experience. The Crossbench Convenor, the Earl of Kinnoull, rightly describes how John "used his kindness and courtesy to project common sense on so many difficult and heart wrenching subjects."

That knowledge had been learned at the coal face of human suffering.

On many fronts, with his wife, Caroline, political and charitable interests have been combined with practical action.

In 1973 John joined Christian Aid - subsequently becoming a director - and he often collaborated with the British Red Cross, frequently reminding the House about the dangers facing the 4000 volunteers from the ICRC and Red Crescent working on the front line in Darfur and Gaza. In two books which he wrote for Save the Children he highlighted the challenges faced by children in the developing world.

John knew Africa well and in his early twenties, he walked across part of the Sahel for Christian Aid.

For over twenty years John was a key leader of the All-Party Group on Sudan and South Sudan - which he had visited a number of times.

In Parliament he called it "a forgotten conflict" highlighting the world's largest humanitarian crisis which has left 50,000 dead and 12 million people, mostly women and children, displaced.

For a time, John and Caroline lived and worked in India. In Parliament he frequently highlighted discrimination against Muslims, Christians, Adivasis and Dalits.

Having seen the oppression of minorities first hand he echoed the great William Wilberforce's condemnation of caste as a detestable system "at war with truth and nature" and often joined forced with Lord Harries of Pentregarth in championing India's 166 million untouchables.

In other debates he focused on the promotion of human rights, refugees, minorities, anti-slavery, asylum policy and the fate of women in Afghanistan.

He argued for the strengthening of civil society, the rule of law, coherence between development and domestic policy pouring scorn on asylum policies that create destitution.

He forensically linked conflict to humanitarian consequences and to the promotion of reconciliation.

On the domestic front John took a great interest in heritage, the environment and conservation.

In 2015 he co-founded the APPG for Prescribed Drug Dependence leading to important changes in NICE clinical guidelines to improve patient safety.

He would have been at one with parliamentarians now pressing for an Inquiry into the negative and sometimes lethal consequences of anti-depressant drugs.

John's valedictory speech was made in a debate about the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

At the age of eighty, and with increasing challenges to his health, John told the House that it was time to retire.

With a twinkle in his eye, and as lucid as ever - 89-year-old Lord Howell of Guildford -responded "I cannot quite understand why he is going, actually-he seems to be quite a young man to me. His speeches are very young indeed, and of course we shall miss them, because he covers the whole world with great acumen and perception."

John used that voice to press for humanitarian realism doing it with calm articulation always backed up by granular evidence and first-hand experience. He despised sloganeering, scapegoating, and personal attacks.

These were all the marks of a fine parliamentarian - but they were also the ideals of the young Christian Aid worker who never forgot to match his words with his deeds.

Caroline and the family deeply miss him - and, albeit in a different way, so do we his parliamentary friends and colleagues.

The greatest tribute we can now pay to John Sandwich is to pick up his torch and ensure that we too use our voices to speak for those who enjoy none of the freedoms which have been bequeathed to us.