Peter Gerald Hain was born on 16 February in 1950 in Nairobi Kenya but he grew up in Pretoria after his south african born parents returned home in 1951.His parents,prominent Liberal Party activists,were banned in 1964,he acted as a liaison to facilitate their political work.In 1966 his family emigrated to Britain where he earned degrees from the universities of London and Sussex.He joined the Britain Liberal Party's youth wing and also the Britain Anti-Apartheid Movement,winning election to its National Committee in 1968.
In 1969 Hain helped to introduce the tactics of direct action to the sports boycott movement.Between 1969-1970 he was the head of the Stop the Seventy Tour campaign,he led bold,disruptive demonstrations which halted rugby and cricket matches between Britain and South Africa in 1969-1970.He successfully defended himself against multiple legal challenges,survived a letter-bomb assassination attempt in 1972 and was acquitted in London court in 1976 after the South African Bureau of State Security framed him on a charge of bank robbery.In 1989 he returned clandestinely to South Africa to film a documentary on rebel British cricket tour.