Clarence Henry Willcock

Clarence Henry Willcock was the last person in the UK to be prosecuted for refusing to carry an Identity Card.

In December 1950 Willcock, then 54, was stopped by police who demanded that he present his Identity Card at a police station within 48 hours. He refused, was prosecuted and convicted.

Willcock appealed. Although he lost the appeal, the Lord Chief Justice Lord Goddard spoke out against the continued use of compulsory Identity Cards and commented that they "tend to make people resentful of the acts of the police".

Goddard's comments are thought to have influenced Churchill's decision to scrap compulsory national Identity Cards in 1952. Just over fifty years on, current Home Secretary David Blunkett wants to reintroduce them.