Edward Carson

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Edward Carson
Edward Carson in a cartoon for Vanity Fair magazine (November 9, 1893)

Edward Henry Carson, Baron Carson PC (born February 9, 1854 in Dublin , † October 22, 1935 , Clive Court at Minster-in-Thanet, Isle of Thanet , Kent , England) was an Irish - British politician.

Life

Attorney, Member of the House of Commons and Queensberry Trials

After attending school, Carson had studied at Trinity College in Dublin a . a. Law studies, where he was classmate of Oscar Wilde . After his admission as a lawyer to the Irish Bar Association of King's Inns in 1877, he took up a position as a barrister and in 1889 was first Crown Attorney ( Queen's Counsel ) and in 1891 so-called "Bencher" of the Bar Association of King's Inns.

As a representative of the unionists , Carson was elected member of the House of Commons for the first time in 1892 , where he represented the constituency of Dublin University until 1918 . He was also Solicitor General of Ireland for a short time in 1892 . After he was also admitted to the bar in England in 1893 with the Bar Association ( Inns of Court ) of Middle Temple , he was appointed Crown Attorney in England in 1894.

In 1895 Carson was Oscar Wilde's opponent in the so-called Queensberry Trials in London. Wilde had brought a trial against the Marquess of Queensberry , the father of his friend and partner Lord Alfred Douglas , for defamation, Carson represented the defendant as defense counsel, which resulted in a kind of duel between the two Irishmen. The brilliant rhetorician Carson not only obtained an acquittal for his client from the jury, he turned the process to the effect that the prosecutor Wilde became a de facto accused in cross-examination. Immediately after Queenberry's acquittal, the Crown brought charges against Wilde, who was then sentenced to two years of hard labor for sodomy . This process, which took place with great interest from the English public, made Carson famous in one fell swoop.

Member of the Government and Lord Judge

Carson, who was a member of the Privy Council of Ireland in 1896 and also a Bencher of the Middle Temple Bar Association in 1900, was Solicitor General of Great Britain from 1900 to 1905 and was also promoted to Knight Bachelor in 1900 , whereupon he has since then been given the suffix "Sir". In 1905 he also became Privy Councilor of Great Britain.

In the context of the Home Rule dispute, he represented a unionist position that called for the continuation of the union between Ireland and England. After the resignation of party chairman Arthur Balfour in November 1911, Carson was considered a possible successor; however, he immediately declared that he did not want to apply for the successor and at the Carlton Club meeting , Bonar Law was elected as his successor. In 1912 Carson achieved his greatest political influence. Shortly after the Home Rule was granted, the gifted speaker and propagandist mobilized a volunteer militia, which later became the Ulster Volunteer Force, the largest unionist group in the Northern Ireland conflict.

Carson, the 1915 Attorney General ( Attorney General ) and 1916-1917 First Lord of the Admiralty , was joined in 1917 as minister without portfolio in the war cabinet of Prime Minister David Lloyd George , meaning a conflict in Northern Ireland further curbed. Since the beginning of the First World War , the conflict had weakened in view of the joint military effort. He was a member of the War Cabinet until 1918.

Between 1918 and 1921 he represented the Duncairn constituency in the House of Commons as an MP . With the Government of Ireland Act of 1920, which divided the island and left Northern Ireland with Great Britain, Carson had achieved his life's work.

Most recently Carson was appointed Lord Judge ( Lord of Appeal in Ordinary ) as a life peer with the title Baron Carson , of Duncairn in the County of Antrim, by a letters patent dated June 1, 1921 on the basis of the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876 and became a member of the House of Lords . He served as lord judge until 1929.

Carson was granted a state funeral as one of the few who do not belong to the English royal family . His remains are in St Anne's Cathedral in Belfast .

literature

Web links

Commons : Edward Carson, Baron Carson  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. Merlin Holland: Oscar Wilde cross-examined. Blessing, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-89667-240-1 .
predecessor Office successor
Arthur Balfour First Lord of the Admiralty
1916–1917 		Eric Campbell Geddes
personal data
SURNAME Carson, Edward
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Carson, Edward Henry, Baron Carson (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Irish-British politician, Member of the House of Commons
DATE OF BIRTH February 9, 1854
PLACE OF BIRTH Dublin
DATE OF DEATH October 22, 1935
Place of death at Minster-in-Thanet, Isle of Thanet , Kent , England