Donald Somervell, Baron Somervell of Harrow

Donald Bradley Somervell, Baron Somervell of Harrow OBE PC KC (* 24. August 1889 ; † 18th November 1960 ) was a British politician of the Conservative Party and a lawyer , who several years deputy in the House of Commons , and most recently as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary was also a member of the House of Lords due to the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876 as Life Peer . In 1945 he served briefly as Minister of the Interior.

Life

Lawyer and Member of the House of Commons

Somervell, whose father was vice principal ( Assistant Master ) and Treasurer ( Bursar ) of the Harrow School between 1887 and 1920, studied chemistry at Magdalen College at the University of Oxford after attending Harrow School , before he went on to study there Graduated from Law and received his admission to the Bar ( Inns of Court ) of Inner Temple in 1916 . He then took up a position as a barrister in the law firm of William Jowitt , where he dealt in particular with cases from commercial law.

For his lawyer's merits Somervell was the 1919, the Officer's Cross of the Order of the British Empire was awarded the 1929 Queen's Counsel ( King's Counsel appointed).

After he ran unsuccessfully as a candidate for the Conservative Party in the constituency of Crewe in the general election on May 30, 1929 , he was elected as a member of the lower house in the constituency of October 27, 1931 and represented until the elections on July 5, 1945 the interests of the Conservative Tories in the House of Commons.

Solicitor General, Attorney General, and Home Secretary

Somervell, who in 1933 was the so-called "bencher" of the Inner Temple Bar Association, was appointed Solicitor General for England and Wales on September 29, 1933 as the successor to Boyd Merriman by Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald and also held this position in the subsequent government of Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin until his replacement by Terence O'Connor on March 18, 1936. In 1933 he was also beaten to a Knight Bachelor degree and since then has had the suffix "Sir".

On March 18, 1936 Prime Minister Baldwin him appointed to succeed Thomas Inskip as Attorney General ( Attorney General ) of England and Wales. This office was held by Somervell, who became Privy Councilor in 1938 and between 1940 and 1946 was also the recorder (city judge) of Kingston upon Thames , until he was replaced by David Maxwell Fyfe on May 25, 1945.

Following Somervell was Prime Minister Winston Churchill on May 25, 1945 as a successor to Herbert Morrison to Home Secretary ( Home Secretary appointed) in the Cabinet. However, he only held the office of Minister of the Interior for a short time until a new government of the Labor Party was formed by Clement Attlee after the general election on July 5, 1945 and James Chuter-Ede became the new Minister of the Interior.

Lord Justice and Member of the House of Lords

Somervell, who was trustee of the Tate Gallery between 1945 and 1950 , was appointed judge ( Lord Justice of Appeal ) in 1946 at the Court of Appeal , the court of appeals responsible for England and Wales, where he served until 1954. During this time he was also from 1947 to 1953 Chairman of the Board of Governors of Harrow School.

By a Letters Patent 4 October 1954 Somervell was due to the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876 as a life peer with the title Baron Somervell of Harrow , of Ewelme in the County of Oxford, the member of the House of Lords in the nobility called and worked until retired on January 6, 1960 as Lord of Appeal in Ordinary .

Web links

• Donald Somervell at Hansard (English)
• Entry in Cracroft's Peerage
• Entry in Leigh Rayment Peerage
• Lords of Appeal in Ordinary 1876-2009 in Peerages