David Tench obituary

In 1969, David Tench, who has died aged 81, became legal adviser to the Consumers' Association (CA), publishers of Which?, and was given the brief to see that the law was changed in consumers' favour. For the next 30 years, he threw himself into the task with energy, persistence and flair. Drawing on research undertaken by Which?, he lobbied, used parliamentary procedure and drafted bills to champion the rights of consumers. He was also adept at explaining the intricacies of consumer law to the public, and worked for 20 years on the BBC television show That's Life. Tench was born in Portsmouth, where his father was a marine engineer. Educated as a Quirister (chorister) at Quirister school, part of Winchester college, he moved on to Merchant Taylors' school in Northwood, Middlesex, after a short time at Portsmouth grammar. He qualified as a solicitor before doing national service in the navy in 1952, where he learned Russian and worked as a decoder, finishing as a midshipman. After four years in private legal practice, he joined the Office of Solicitors of the Inland Revenue. While he was there, he was invited by the newly established Consumers' Association to write a book explaining consumer law. The Law for Consumers (1962) – written in the evenings and at weekends – was an immediate success, and was the first of several titles commissioned by Edith Rudinger, the editor of Which? Publications. These included The Legal Side of Buying a House (1965), Wills and Probate (1967) and How to Sue in the County Court (1973) – simple, usable guides that showed the way out of everyday legal difficulties. On the day Tench started his new job at CA, Which? published a report on unsolicited goods. This included the suggestion that CA should sponsor a private member's bill allowing anyone who received unordered goods to keep them if the sender did not collect them in reasonable time. Tench drafted the text and enlisted the support of Arthur Davidson, a Labour MP high on the list for private members' bills. With a change of government in the 1970 election, the bill fell, but it was subsequently taken up by the Conservative MP Philip Goodhart, a member of CA's council, and became the Unsolicited Goods and Services Act 1971. Tench had found his metier, drafting consumer legislation and using parliamentary procedure to influence reforms to include the consumer aspect. He was brilliant at lobbying, well prepared, full of ideas, persistent and persuasive. He contributed to a raft of legislation in the 1970s and 80s. The 1977 Unfair Contract Terms Act controlled all exclusion clauses and ended much of the scandal of small print conditions. The 1982 Supply of Goods and Services Act extended consumer protection to transactions not covered by previous legislation. In The Legal Side of Buying a House, Tench had presented complex legal points in accessible terms, suggesting that a lay person could do his own conveyancing and save sizeable lawyer's fees. The book struck a blow for the consumer against a professional monopoly. In 1985, the Administration of Justice Act took in proposals that broke solicitors' monopoly of conveyancing, first floated in Austin Mitchell's private members' bill, the House Buyers' bill, which Tench had drafted. Behind his easy public manner and lucid exposition was a steely legal mind. In addition to his parliamentary work, Tench became well known for explaining aspects of consumer law in the media. In the 1970s, he appeared as the "legal eagle" once a week on Jimmy Young's Radio 2 show, and in 1973 was recruited by Esther Rantzen as legal adviser for the new TV consumer magazine programme That's Life. He stayed with the show through its 21-year run, occasionally appearing in front of the cameras. Tench retired from CA in 1994 as director of legal affairs. He was chairman of the Domestic Coal Consumers' Council from 1976 to 1987 and an Energy Commissioner from 1977 to 1979. He was appointed OBE in 1987. Tench married Judith Gurney in 1957; they had two sons and a daughter. After Judith's death at the age of 51, he married Elizabeth Macdonald, who survives him, along with his three children. • David Edward Tench, solicitor and consumer rights activist, born 14 June 1929; died 23 January 2011