Mark Alexander Abrams

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Mark Alexander Abrams (b. 27 April 1906 - d. 25 September 1994) was a British public opinion researcher and the establisher of Research Services Limited.

He went to school at the Latymer School in Edmonton, North London, and studied at the London School of Economics, under R. H. Tawney, and then at the Brookings Institute in Washington, D.C. (1931 to 1933). In 1933 he returned to Great Britain and entered industry, joining the Research Department of the London Press Exchange (LPE), a major advertising agency.

In 1939 he helped many European social scientists, including Sigmund Freud, find refuge in the UK from the Nazis..

Between 1939 and 1941, he worked for the BBC, Overseas Research Department analyzing Nazi propaganda broadcasts. He then worked at the Psychological Warfare Board, investigating experiences, beliefs, and needs of the population.

In 1946, Abrams started Research Services Limited, where he worked as Managing Director and later as Chairman until 1970. Abrams was connected with the British Labour Party, for whom he conducted many public opinion polls between 1950 and 1960.

Between 1970 and 1976, he was Director of the Survey Research Unit at the Social Research Council. From 1976 to 1985 he was Research Director of Age Concern, from 1978 to 1994 he was Vice-President of the Policy Studies Institute. He was also an advisor of the Consumers' Association.

The Mark Abrams Prize is named after him.

In 1931 he married Una Strugnell with whom he had a son and a daughter. The marriage ended in 1951, and he married Jean Bird with whom he had one daughter.

[edit] Publications

Condition of the British People, 1911-1946" (1947);
Social Surveys and Social Action ((1951);
Beyond Three Score and Ten (1980);
People in Their Sixties (1983).

Together with Richard Rose he wrote the book Must Labour Lose? where they discussed the theory of the embourgeoisment of the working class in Great Britain. '