Samuel Silkin, Baron Silkin of Dulwich

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Samuel Charles Silkin, Baron Silkin of Dulwich , PC , QC (born March 6, 1918 in Neath , Glamorgan , Wales , † August 17, 1988 in Oxford ) was a British politician, lawyer and life peer . From 1974 to 1979 he was Attorney General for England and Wales and Northern Ireland .

Life

Silkin was the second eldest son of the House of Commons Lewis Silkin (later 1st Baron Silkin ). His younger brother, John Silkin , also sat in the House of Commons .

Silkin received his education at Dulwich College , then he studied at Trinity Hall in Cambridge . During his time in Dulwich , Silkin showed himself to be a talented cricketer and in 1936 he was the captain of his school team. In Cambridge he continued his sports career, but had little success and could not achieve a Blue . After all, he made two first-class missions in 1938 , in which he was able to score four runs as a batsman and two wickets as a thrower .

In 1941 Silkin received his barrister license . It attracted some attention when the Jew Silkin, who was Junior Reginald Pagets at the time, appeared as defense attorney in the 1949 war crimes trial of Erich von Manstein . In 1963 he was appointed Queen's Counsel .

In the general election in 1964 , he succeeded Robert Jenkins in moving into the House of Commons for the constituency of Dulwich . The Labor politician Silkin retained his seat in parliament until he decided not to run in the 1983 elections. In the House of Commons, he served from 1966 to 1970 as Chairman of the Committee on Europe and the Common Market of his group. From 1968 to 1970 he was also head of the British delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe , in which he also chaired the judicial committee. During Edward Heath's reign from 1970 to 1974, Silkin was the opposition spokesman for legal policy issues.

Silkin was a founding member and from 1964 to 1971 chairman of the Society of Labor Lawyers . From 1972 to 1974 he was Chairman of the British Institute of Human Rights and 1973 President of the Alcohol Education Center .

Silkin reached the climax of his political career in 1974 when the newly elected Prime Minister Harold Wilson brought him into his cabinet as Attorney General . He also held this office under Wilson's successor, James Callaghan , until the Conservative Party under Margaret Thatcher took over government again in 1979 .

In 1985 Silkin was raised to the rank of Life Peer with the title of Baron Silkin of Dulwich , of Northleigh in the County of Oxfordshire . He thereby became a member of the House of Lords .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Profile on espncricinfo.com accessed on February 25, 2015
  2. ↑ Portrait of Lewis Silkin on cracroftspeerage.co.uk accessed February 25, 2015
  3. ^ Spiegel article from 1952 on the Manstein case, accessed on February 25, 2015
  4. ↑ a b c d Short biography on janus.lib.cam.ac.uk, accessed on February 25, 2015
  5. ^ Samuel Charles Silkin, Baron Silkin of Dulwich on thepeerage.com , accessed September 13, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Silkin, Samuel, Baron Silkin of Dulwich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Silkin, Sam; Silkin, Samuel Charles, Baron Silkin of Dulwich (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British Politician and Attorney General, Life Peer
DATE OF BIRTH March 6, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH Neath , Glamorgan , Wales
DATE OF DEATH 17th August 1988
Place of death Oxford