Michael Schofield, who has died aged 94, was at the centre of social reform in the 1960s and 70s, well known in law pressure groups and, in his quiet way, a figure of considerable influence through his books, reports and articles. He produced pioneering work about gay people, and his best-known book was the Sexual Behaviour of Young People (1965).
His first book, Society and the Homosexual (1952), was published under the pen-name Gordon Westwood, since homosexuality was then a criminal offence. It was the first non-medical book on homosexuality, a thorough study of its social aspects much quoted by journalists, politicians and sociologists during the discussions that led up to the Wolfenden report (1957), whose recommendations that homosexual acts be legalised came into effect 10 years later.
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