Michael Havers, Baron Havers

Robert Michael Oldfield Havers, Baron Havers PC QC (born March 10, 1923 , † April 1, 1992 in London ) was a British lawyer and politician of the Conservative Party and for a short time Lord Chancellor of Great Britain ( The Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain ).

biography

After attending Westminster School , the son of the High Court of Justice judge Cecil Havers began studying law at the University of Cambridge , which he interrupted because of his military service in the Royal Navy during World War II . After the end of the war he resumed his studies and was admitted to the bar in 1948 . In the following years he worked as a successful lawyer and judge and was appointed Crown Attorney (Queen's Counsel) in 1964.

In addition, he began a political career in the Conservative Party and was elected to the House of Commons in the 1970 general election, where he represented the constituency of Wimbledon until 1987 .

In November 1972 he was appointed Solicitor General in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Edward Heath . In 1972 he was also beaten to a Knight Bachelor degree and from then on carried the title "Sir". He held the office of Solicitor General until the end of Heath's tenure in March 1974. In this capacity, he led the impeachment proceedings against the Maguire Seven , in which seven members of the Maguire family falsely because of the Guildford pub bombings as terrorists were convicted.

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher appointed him after the Conservative Party's victory in the general election in May 1979 as Attorney General . As such, he was responsible for bringing charges against the serial killer Peter William Sutcliffe , who, as a so-called Yorkshire Ripper , murdered at least 13 women, often prostitutes , between 1975 and 1980 and was sentenced to life imprisonment in May 1981 .

After resigning from the Attorney General's office in June 1987, he succeeded Baron Hailsham of St Marylebone as Lord Chancellor . For health reasons, however, he only held this post for a few months and was replaced by James Mackay, Baron Mackay of Clashfern after his resignation in October 1987 . In 1987 he was raised to the high nobility as a life peer with the title Baron Havers, of St Edmundsbury in the County of Suffolk , and thus also to a member of the House of Lords .

His younger sister Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, Baroness Butler-Sloss , was also a judge on the High Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal . Michael Haver's son Philip Havers also became a lawyer and attorney at law, while his older son is well-known film actor Nigel Havers .

Web links

• Chambers Biographical Dictionary , pp. 692, Edinburgh 2002, ISBN 0-550-10051-2