Alfred Lawrence, 1st Baron Trevethin
PC | |
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Lord Chief Justice of England | |
In office 15 April 1921 – 2 March 1922 | |
Monarch | George V |
Preceded by | The Earl of Reading |
Succeeded by | The Lord Hewart |
Personal details | |
Born | 24 November 1843 Pontypool, Monmouthshire United Kingdom |
Died | 3 August 1936 Builth, Brecknockshire United Kingdom | (aged 92)
Alma mater | Trinity Hall, Cambridge |
Occupation | Judge |
Alfred Tristram Lawrence, 1st Baron Trevethin,
Biography
Lawrence was the eldest son of David Lawrence, a surgeon, of Pontypool, Monmouthshire, and Elizabeth, daughter of Charles Morgan Williams. He had originally intended to follow his father into medicine, but became interested in law after witnessing a property case in which his family had an interest.
He was educated at
In
Lord Chief Justice
In 1921, the
Both Lawrence and
The arrangement caused much controversy. The judges were so incensed that they refused to attend Lord Reading's farewell ceremony. Lord Birkenhead, the Lord Chancellor, complained that the plan was illegal and "would make the Lord Chief Justice a transient figure subject to removal at the will of the government of the day and the creature of political exigency". Darling, who had written to Lloyd George to ask for the appointment "even for ten minutes", was said to have remarked that he supposed he was not old enough (Darling was then aged 71).
Lawrence remained Lord Chief Justice until March 1922, when he resigned, to be succeeded by Hewart. He reputedly learned of his "resignation" when reading a newspaper on a train to London on his way to court. By the time he resigned, it was said that he was so deaf that he could no longer follow cases properly.
Later years and family
Lord Trevethin died in August 1936, aged 92. A keen angler in later life,[4] he suffered a seizure[1] while fishing in the River Wye above Builth Wells, fell in and drowned before he was taken out of the water.[1][4] He was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium.[4]
Lord Trevethin married his cousin Jessie Elizabeth, daughter of George Lawrence, in 1875. They had a daughter and four sons, of whom the eldest, Hon. Alfred Clive Lawrence, predeceased his father. He was succeeded in the barony by his second son Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Trevor Lawrence. His third son Hon. Geoffrey Lawrence also became a noted lawyer and was himself raised to the peerage as Baron Oaksey, before succeeding his elder brother in the barony of Trevethin in 1959.
Arms
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References
- ^ a b c "Lawrence, Alfred Tristram (LWRN864AT)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
- PhD, The Football League's player registration scheme and the Kingaby case Archived 24 November 2012 at the Wayback Machine, accessed 16 December 2012
- ^ a b c The Complete Peerage, Volume XIII - Peerage Creations 1901-1938. St Catherine's Press. 1949. p. 362.
- ^ Debrett's Peerage. 1936.
Bibliography
- Wickham Legg, L. G. The Dictionary of National Biography, 1931–1940. Oxford University Press, 1949.
- Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990, [page needed]