Reginald Manningham-Buller, 1st Viscount Dilhorne
Solicitor-General for England | |
|---|---|
| In office 3 November 1951 – 18 October 1954 | |
| Prime Minister | Winston Churchill |
| Preceded by | Lynn Ungoed-Thomas |
| Succeeded by | Sir Harry Hylton-Foster |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1 August 1905 Amersham, Buckinghamshire, England |
| Died | 7 September 1980 (aged 75) |
| Resting place | Deene, East Northamptonshire |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouse |
Lady Mary Lindsay (m. 1930) |
| Alma mater | Magdalen College, Oxford |
Reginald Edward Manningham-Buller, 1st Viscount Dilhorne,
Background and education
Born in
His uncle's seat of Dilhorne Hall having passed to an heiress ineligible for the baronetcy, Manningham-Buller grew up in Northamptonshire. (Although now pronounced "Dill-horn" by locals, he preferred the older pronunciation of "Dill-urn".)[3] He was educated at Eton College, where he caused a fellow pupil to be expelled for making advances to another boy.[4] He then attended Magdalen College, Oxford, where he took a Third in Law, before being called to the Bar by the Inner Temple in 1927.
Political career
Manningham-Buller was elected to the
Law officer of the Crown
When Churchill regained power in 1951 Manningham-Buller was knighted and became Solicitor-General; in 1954 he was sworn of the Privy Council and became Attorney General for England and Wales. In 1956 he succeeded his father as fourth Baronet.
John Bodkin Adams prosecution
In 1957 Manningham-Buller prosecuted suspected
Detective Superintendent
Charles Hewett, Hannam's assistant in the investigation, has described how both officers were astounded at Manningham-Buller's decision to charge John Bodkin Adams with the murder of Mrs. Morrell, whose body had been cremated. He believed that there were other cases against the doctor, where traces of drugs had been found in exhumed remains, which were more capable of proof. He also considered that a charge of manslaughter would have been more appropriate in the circumstances. He questioned the decision not to proceed further after Adams' acquittal and he believed that a calculating killer escaped justice as a result. Home Office pathologist Francis Camps suspected Adams of killing 163 patients.[6]
Lady Chatterley's Lover prosecution
Lord Chancellorship
He continued as Attorney-General under
Manningham-Buller wrote the first report on the
Key judgments
Lord Dilhorne held in Newbury District Council v Secretary of State for the Environment; Newbury District Council v International Synthetic Rubber Co. Ltd. [1981] AC 578: "The conditions imposed must be for a planning purpose and not for any ulterior one... and they must fairly and reasonably relate to the development permitted. Also they must not be so unreasonable that no reasonable planning authority could have imposed them. In that case he also introduced the concept of the 'planning unit' which extinguishes previous permitted uses on land that has in practice become a new planning unit. This has stood up the test of recent jurisprudence and a
Bullying manner
In the late 1950s, Bernard Levin gave Manningham-Buller the nickname "Bullying-Manner" in his Parliamentary sketch. When Manningham-Buller was elevated to the peerage as Lord Dilhorne, Levin renamed him Lord Stillborn.[11] Lord Devlin, judge in the Adams case, described Buller's technique thus:
"He could be downright rude but he did not shout or bluster. Yet his disagreeableness was so pervasive, his persistence so interminable, the obstructions he manned so far flung, his objectives apparently so insignificant, that sooner or later you would be tempted to ask yourself whether the game was worth the candle: if you asked yourself that, you were finished."[6]
Manningham-Buller was one of the inspirations for the character of Kenneth Widmerpool in Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time.[6]
Marriage and children
Manningham-Buller married Lady Mary Lilian Lindsay (1910–2004), daughter of David Lindsay, 27th Earl of Crawford, in 1930. They had a son and three daughters:[12]
- John Mervyn Manningham-Buller, 2nd Viscount Dilhorne (28 February 1932 – 25 June 2022)
- Hon Marion Cynthia Manningham-Buller (26 November 1934 – 10 August 2013), married Edmund Crispin Stephen James George Brudenell.[13]
- Elizabeth Lydia Manningham-Buller, Baroness Manningham-Buller(born 14 July 1948)
- Hon Anne Constance Manningham-Buller (born 13 August 1951), married Sir John Christopher Parsons, KCVO.
Manningham-Buller died in 1980, aged 75, and was interred in
In Parliament, Dilhorne opposed the legislation to legalise homosexual acts between consenting men.[14]
Notes
- ^ "No. 13582". The Edinburgh Gazette. 1 April 1920. p. 915.
- ISBN 0-9711966-2-1.
- ^ "History". Dilhorne Recreation Centre. Retrieved 24 December 2016.
- ^ Anthony Powell, "Journals 1990–92".
- ^ Devlin, 1985.
- ^ a b c d e f Cullen, 2006.
- ^ Bernard Levin was pursued for contempt over Chatterley trial – Times Online Archived 17 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "No. 42736". The London Gazette. 20 July 1962. p. 5807.
- ^ "No. 43511". The London Gazette. 8 December 1964. p. 10447.
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 19 May 2011. Retrieved 7 June 2008.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ Fagan, Kieran. "Bernard Levin", The Sunday Independent, 15 August 2004.
- ^ Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003.
- ^ Obituary, Tam Dalyell, published in The Independent 6 November 2014
- ^ "SEXUAL OFFENCES BILL [H.L.] (Hansard, 16 June 1966)".
- Cullen, Pamela V., "A Stranger in Blood: The Case Files on Dr John Bodkin Adams", London, Elliott & Thompson, 2006, ISBN 1-904027-19-9
- Devlin, Patrick; "Easing the Passing", London, The Bodley Head, 1985
External links
- Gallery of those involved in the Adams case, including a photo of Manningham-Buller
- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Viscount Dilhorne
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