Pritt, Denis Nowell (1887–1972)

British lawyer, communist, and politician. Initially a Conservative, Pritt joined the Liberals in 1914 and was elected Labour member of Parliament for Hammersmith North in 1935. Expelled from the party in 1940 for his increasingly pro-Soviet stance, Pritt nonetheless held his seat at the 1945 election, but lost it in 1950. Pritt worked on a number of famous political cases, notably defending Jomo Kenyatta in 1952 against charges of colluding with the nationalist activities of the Mau Mau.

Awarded the Lenin Peace Prize in 1954, he retired from the bar in 1960, worked at the university of Ghana in 1965 and published a three-volume autobiography in 1966.