Obituary: Henry Usborne

It may well be that Henry Usborne [obituary, 20 March] gave financial help to Dick Taverne in his Lincoln campaigns as Democratic Labour candidate, writes Professor Alan Deyermond. But it is not true that, as Phillip Whitehead implies, Usborne's support for the Liberal Party followed Taverne's proto-SDP breakaway.

Usborne, after losing his Yardley seat in 1959, was attracted by Jo Grimond's view of radicalism, joined the Liberal Party at the end of March 1962 (11 years before Taverne's by-election victory in Lincoln), and gave active support to the Radical Reform Group.