Sir Sigmund Sternberg

Sir Sigmund Sternberg, who has died aged 95, was a metal dealer and philanthropist who gave money to Harold Wilson’s Labour Party and campaigned for greater understanding between religions.

When Labour was in Opposition in the early 1970s Sternberg paid for researchers for several shadow ministers. He was knighted in the “Lavender” Honours List when Wilson resigned in 1976.

For the next 30 years Sternberg devoted much energy to inter-faith charities and became that rare creature, a Jewish Papal Knight. He organised the first Papal visit to a synagogue and helped to resolve tensions when Carmelite nuns set up camp next to Auschwitz concentration camp.

Editors of newspaper letter columns were familiar with missives from Sternberg’s address in London N3. Topics deserving his attention included G8 meetings, Israeli-Palestinian relations, ethical codes, speech therapy and “xenophobic” headlines in newspaper sports pages. He liked to pronounce on the high quality of people in public life.

One of his keenest bugbears was the impertinence of newspaper diarists. Born June 2 1921, died October 18 2016