Reginald Manningham-Buller, 1st Viscount Dilhorne

Reginald Edward Manningham-Buller, 1st Viscount Dilhorne PC QC (born August 1, 1905 in Amersham , Buckinghamshire , † September 7, 1980 in Knoydart , Inverness-shire ) was a British politician of the Conservative Party and lawyer . He was a member of the House of Commons for several years , was raised to hereditary nobility in 1962 , was thus a member of the House of Lords , was Lord Chancellor between 1962 and 1964, and most recently Lord of Appeal in Ordinary .

Life

Parentage, Attorney, and MP

Manningham-Buller was a great-grandson of Edward Manningham-Buller , who was an intermittent member of the House of Commons for 23 years and who was made Baronet of Dilhorne Hall in the County of Stafford in 1866 . His father Mervyn Manningham-Buller was also a member of the House of Commons for 14 years and became 3rd Baronet in 1910. His mother, Lilah Constance Cavendish, was the daughter of Charles Cavendish, 3rd Baron Chesham , a major general in the British Army , who between 1900 and 1901 was an honorary Master of the Buckhounds and then Lord of the Bedchamber of the then Prince of Wales George .

He graduated after visiting the Eton College to study law at Magdalen College of the University of Oxford and received in 1927 his legal approval to the Bar Association ( Inns of Court ) from Inner Temple . He then took up a job as a barrister .

After the death of Edward FitzRoy Manningham-Buller was at a by-election ( by-election ) on 3 March 1943 as the candidate of the conservative Tories first elected as a deputy in the House of Commons and represented there first the constituency Daventry until its dissolution on 23 . February 1950. During this time he was in 1943 briefly Parliamentary secretary at the Ministry of works ( Ministry of works ) and 1946 Attorney ( King's Counsel appointed).

In the general election on February 23, 1950 Manningham-Buller was re-elected for the Conservative Party as a member of the House of Commons, in which he now represented the newly created constituency of Northamptonshire South until July 17, 1962 .

Solicitor General and Attorney General of England and Wales

On November 3, 1951, Manningham-Buller was appointed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill to succeed Lynn Ungoed-Thomas as Solicitor General of England and Wales and held this position until his replacement by Harry Hylton-Foster on October 18, 1954. At the same time he was 1951 beaten to the Knight Bachelor and from then on carried the suffix "Sir".

Subsequently, on October 18, 1954, Prime Minister Churchill appointed him as Attorney General to the Attorney General of England and Wales and held this office under Churchill's successors, Anthony Eden and Harold Macmillan, until he was replaced by John Hobson on July 18, 1962. After the death of his father, Manningham-Buller, who also became Privy Councilor in 1954, was heir to 4th Baronet on August 22, 1956.

Charges against serial killer John Bodkin Adams

As Attorney General in 1957 he represented the prosecution against the alleged serial killer John Bodkin Adams , who as a doctor lost around 160 patients under mysterious circumstances between 1946 and 1956. Ultimately, however, only the two deaths of Edith Alice Morrell and Gertrude Hullett were indicted, with Manningham-Buller's application to discontinue or withdraw the complaint ( nolle prosequi ) relating to Hullett, while the Morrell case took place on April 9 1957 came to an acquittal . The presiding judge Patrick , later himself Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, denounced the withdrawal as "abuse of process". The trial led to the introduction of the so-called principle of double action into English law, according to which a doctor who inadvertently causes the patient's death in the will to calm his patient's pain should not be charged with murder. Second, due to the enormous public interest at Adam's hearing, the defendant was allowed to seek exclusion from the public. Manningham-Buller's procedural tactics were also criticized in politics and discussed in debates in the House of Commons.

Lord Chancellor, Member of the House of Lords and Lord Judge

On July 13, 1962, Manningham-Buller was appointed by Prime Minister Macmillan to succeed David Maxwell Fyfe, 1st Earl of Kilmuir as Lord Chancellor of Great Britain . Shortly thereafter, he was raised to the hereditary nobility ( Hereditary Peerage ) by a letters patent from July 17, 1962 with the title Baron Dilhorne, of Towcester in the County of Northampton and thus also a member of the House of Lords . The office of Lord Chancellor was held by Lord Dilhorne, who was briefly recorder (town judge) of Kingston upon Thames in 1962 , also under Macmillan's successor Alec Douglas-Home until the Conservative Party lost power in the general election on October 15, 1964 .

By a Letters Patent of December 7, 1964 Baron Dilhorne was that from 1964 to 1966 as deputy chairman of the opposition Tory faction in the upper house ( Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the House of Lords ) acted, the hereditary title of Viscount Dilhorne, of Green's Norton in the County of Northampton .

As such, he was Deputy Lieutenant of Northamptonshire in 1967 before serving as Lord Judge as Lord of Appeal in Ordinary from 1969 to 1980. During this time he was first a so-called "reader" in 1974 and treasurer of the Inner Temple Bar Association in 1975.

Marriage and offspring

From his marriage on December 18, 1930 to Mary Lilian Lindsay, a daughter of the politician David Lindsay, 27th Earl of Crawford , who among other things was Minister of Agriculture ( President of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries ), Lord Seal Keeper , Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster , Minister of Public Works ( First Commissioner of Works ) and Minister of Transport ( Minister of Transport ) had a total of four children.

After his death, his only son, John Mervyn Manningham-Buller , became his heir as 2nd Viscount Dilhorne on September 7, 1980. His second eldest daughter, Eliza Manningham-Buller, was Director General of the Security Service from 2002 to 2007 and became a Life Peeress with the title Baroness Manningham-Buller, of Northampton in the County of Northamptonshire in 2008 under her own law ("de suo jure") member of the House of Lords.

Web links

• Mr Reginald Manningham-Buller at Hansard (English)
• Entry in Cracroft's Peerage
• Entry in Leigh Rayment Peerage
• Lords of Appeal in Ordinary 1876-2009 in Peerages

Individual evidence

1. ^ The Case of Dr John Bodkin Adams
2. ↑ ENGLAND / CRIMINAL PROCESS LAW: The triumph of the lawyer . In: Der Spiegel from April 24, 1957
3. ↑ April 9, 2007 - 50 years ago: Dr. Adams is acquitted of the murder charge: "In heaven" or "at seven"? (WDR key date)
4. ↑ John Surtees: The Strange Case of Dr. Bodkin Adams: The Life and Murder Trial of Eastbourne's Infamous Doctor and the Views of Those Who Knew Him , 2000, p. 132

predecessor	Office	successor
Mervyn Manningham-Buller	Baronet, of Dilhorne Hall 1956-1980	John Manningham-Buller
New title created	Baron Dilhorne 1962-1980	John Manningham-Buller
New title created	Viscount Dilhorne 1964-1980	John Manningham-Buller