Henry James, 1st Baron James of Hereford

Henry James (cartoon in Vanity Fair magazine , March 7, 1874)

Henry James, 1st Baron James of Hereford GCVO PC Kt QC ( October 30, 1828 - August 18, 1911 ) was a British lawyer and politician of the Liberal Party who had been a member of the House of Commons twice for more than 25 years Attorney General and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster between 1895 and 1902 . In 1895 he was raised to the nobility as Baron James of Hereford and was a member of the House of Lords until his death .

Life

Member of the House of Commons, Solicitor General and Attorney General

James, the only son of surgeon Philip Turner James, graduated from the prestigious Cheltenham College with a law degree and was admitted to the bar in 1852 with the law firm ( Inns of Court ) of Middle Temple . He then worked as a lawyer and was appointed Crown Attorney (Queen's Counsel) in 1869 for his legal experience .

At the same time, he began his political career in 1869 when he was elected member of the House of Commons for the Liberal Party and initially represented the constituency of Taunton until November 24, 1885 as the successor to Edward William Cox .

During this time James, who in 1870 also became bencher of the Middle Temple Bar, succeeded George Jessel as Solicitor General in the Cabinet of Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone in 1873 . The knight bachelor's degree in 1873 was also associated with this position , so that from then on he carried the suffix "Sir". As part of a cabinet reshuffle, he succeeded John Coleridge as Attorney General in 1873 and held the office of Attorney General until the end of Gladstone's tenure on February 20, 1874.

After Gladstone became Prime Minister again on April 23, 1880, James took over the office of Attorney General again and held this again until the end of Gladstone's tenure on June 23, 1885. In 1885 he was also appointed a member of the Privy Council .

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Member of the House of Lords

On November 24th, 1885 James was as successor to Robert Philips in the constituency Bury re-elected as deputies in the lower house and represented that constituency until July 13, 1895. During this time he served in 1888 as Treasurer (Treasurer) of the Bar Association of the Middle Temple, temporarily as Attorney General of the Prince of Wales and between 1892 and 1895 as Attorney General of the Duchy of Lancaster and at the same time as Attorney General of the Duchy of Cornwall .

On July 4, 1895, he was appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in the government of Prime Minister Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury and held this office until August 11, 1902. In personal union he also acted as Chancellor of the Duchy of Cornwall.

Shortly after taking over these offices, James was raised to hereditary nobility by a letters patent dated August 5, 1895 as a peer with the title 1st Baron James of Hereford, in the County of Hereford , and was thus a member of the House of until his death Lords. After retiring from government service, he became Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) in 1902 .

Since Baron James of Hereford died childless, the title of nobility expired with his death.

Web links

• Henry James at Hansard (English)
• Entry in Cracroft's Peerage
• Entry in Leigh Rayment Peerage
• Henry James, 1st and last Baron James of Hereford on thepeerage.com , accessed August 19, 2015.

predecessor	Office	successor
Newly created title	Baron James of Hereford 1895-1911	Title expired