Jack Scarisbrick, the co-founder of the charity Life, died peacefully at home with his two daughters, Emma and Sarah, by his side, on Saturday 28 February at the age of 97.
A renowned historian specialising in Tudor history, Jack was appointed as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1969, and was awarded an MBE in 2015 for services to vulnerable people. He also served in the Royal Air Force.
In addition to his distinguished academic career, in 1970, he and his wife, Nuala, co-founded the pro-life charity Life, and the duo spearheaded the charity’s work until they stepped down in 2017, with Jack being the charity’s figurehead.
Jack leaves behind a lasting legacy through his work with Life. The charity provided counselling services to 3,685 people in the year 2024/25, and maintains 19 supported houses across the UK, which have helped more than 12,000 vulnerable mothers find housing.
Speaking of the need for a pro-life society, Scarisbrick said, “I think there is a deep sense of justice still lurking in the human being. We are creatures who have a response to the transcendent moral law; and a society which professes human rights is living a lie if it denies the fundamental right to life”.
Pro-life Peer Lord Alton said that it was “one of the great privileges of my life to have known Jack”.
“In charting a path to create a coherent and effective pro life movement – based on an insistence that the lives of a woman and her child both mattered – he redefined and reshaped the arguments around what Jack called ‘the supreme human rights question’”, Lord Alton added.
“[Jack] knew that MPs could only challenge laws ending the life of the child in the womb if we were equally committed to providing practical help for vulnerable women – many of whom were pressurised by society or by men into taking the life of their child”.
Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said “Thousands of people are alive today right across the UK because of the work that Jack pioneered to support women facing unplanned pregnancies”.
“For over five decades, Jack helped to build and shape a movement that did not just argue for the right to life of every human being from conception to natural death, but showed it by standing alongside women facing unplanned pregnancies with compassion, time, and real support”.
“Jack and the life-saving work he pioneered have been an inspiration to pro-lifers here in the UK and internationally. He leaves an incredible legacy that will continue to be an inspiration to us all for decades to come”.
“The work that he and his late wife, Nuala, carried out through their charitable endeavours has had a tangible, long-lasting impact on the lives of countless women and their unborn babies, many of whom would doubtless not be here today if it were not for them”.
“Our thoughts are with Jack’s family and friends at this time”.
