Alexander Coutanche, Baron Coutanche

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Bust of Alexander Coutanche, Baron Coutanche, in the Royal Square of Saint Helier

Alexander Moncrieff Coutanche, Baron Coutanche (born May 9, 1892 in Saint Savior , Jersey ; † December 18, 1973 in Saint Brélade , Jersey) was a British lawyer and politician of the Conservative Party , who was bailiff ( Bailiff ) of the crown from 1935 to 1961 Jersey was and became a member of the House of Lords in 1961 when Life Peer under the Life Peerages Act 1958 .

Life

Studies, lawyer and First World War

After visiting the La Chasse Preparatory School, the High School in Jersey and the Victoria College graduated Coutanche a degree in Law at the University of Caen . He then completed his entrance exam at Carlisle and Gregson's London Academy to enter the colonial administration service for India . However, he was rejected for health reasons and after his admission to the bar ( Inns of Court ) of Middle Temple took a job as a barrister in the law firm of John Beaumont.

In 1913, Coutanche was admitted to the Jersey Bar and worked after the outbreak of World War I in 1914, initially as an assistant to a government secretary in Jersey. Due to his poor health, he was unable to take up regular military service, so he began working in an ammunition factory to support the British Army , where he rose from simple worker to manager . In 1915 he was also admitted to the bar in England .

In 1917 Coutanche began his voluntary service as an employee of the War Claims Commission and was transferred to Belgium with the rank of lieutenant , where he was awarded the War Cross and the Knight's Cross of the Order of the Crown . In 1920 he retired from military service with the rank of captain and then worked as a lawyer in London before he settled as a lawyer in Jersey due to his father's illness.

Political career and Bailiff of Jersey

In 1922, Coutanche was elected Member of Parliament ( States of Jersey ) in the constituency of Saint Helier .

Three years later, in 1925, he was appointed Solicitor General, and in this position began reforming the legal department of the island administration, but also of parliament. After six years as a solicitor-general, he became attorney general in 1931 and subsequently tried to reform court proceedings, such as the introduction of English as the uniform language in courts. He himself was the first attorney general to read an indictment in English.

After the resignation of Charles Edward Malet de Carteret on August 27, 1935, Coutanche was appointed as his successor as Vogt ( Bailiff ) of the Crown Estate of Jersey. He was the last bailiff to be appointed for life and also the last holder of this office to be appointed without the consultation in Parliament of Jersey, which is now mandatory.

During the course of the Second World War on September 27, 1940, during his tenure as Bailiff, the German Wehrmacht occupied the Channel Islands . While the influence of the States of Jersey began to grow before the German occupation , the occupation of Jersey between 1940 and 1945 made clear the need for central decision-making power in the person of the bailiff in order to maintain the island's independent life. During the occupation he was also chairman of the Supreme Court of Jersey .

After the end of the war he was instrumental in the reform of the constitutional system in 1948, which led to the fact that the membership of the judges ( jurat ) in parliament was replaced by that of the senators, which led to a stronger delimitation of the legislature and the judiciary . The political leadership was thus more clearly on the senators than exclusively elected political representatives.

House of Lords

By a Letters Patent of July 11, 1961 Coutanche, the 1946 Knight Bachelor was defeated and since then the name suffix "Sir" led, as a life peer with the title Baron Coutanche , of St Brelade in Jersey and of the City of Westminster, in raised the nobility and was thus a member of the House of Lords until his death.

First, he belonged to the upper house as so-called CROSSBENCHER on before he after his resignation as Bailiff and the subsequent replacement by Cecil Stanley Harrison on 14 November 1961 in this office fraction of the Conservative Party joined.

Baron Coutanche was named a Bencher by the Middle Temple Bar Association for his services and received an Honorary Doctor of Law (Hon. LL.D.) from the University of Caen.

Publications

  • Dictionary of Anglo-Belgian Law , co-authored by Lionel EF Anspach, Verlag FB Rothman, 1920

Background literature

  • Hugh Raymond Spilsbury Pocock (Editor): The memoirs of Lord Coutanche: a Jerseyman looks back , 1975

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ London Gazette . No. 37487, HMSO, London, March 1, 1946, p. 1186 ( PDF , accessed October 20, 2013, English).
  2. ↑ London Gazette . No. 42409, HMSO, London, July 11, 1961, p. 5101 ( PDF , accessed October 20, 2013, English).
personal data
SURNAME Coutanche, Alexander, Baron Coutanche
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Coutanche, AM; Coutanche, Alexander M .; Coutanche, Alexander Moncrieff, Baron Coutanche (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British politician and lawyer in Jersey
DATE OF BIRTH May 9, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Saint Savior , Jersey
DATE OF DEATH 18th December 1973
Place of death Saint Brélade , Jersey