Sir Basil Edward Nield (7 May 1903 – 4 December 1996) was a British judge and

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

politician. After the death in 1940 of Sir Charles Cayzer, the

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) for the City of Chester, Nield was elected in a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

to take his seat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

. He held the seat through four subsequent general elections before his appointment as Recorder of Manchester led to the by-election in 1956. He was Recorder of Manchester from 1956 to 1960. As a QC he was appointed as a judge to the newly formed

Manchester Crown Court Manchester Crown Court (Crown Square) is a Crown Court venue which deals with criminal cases at Crown Square in Manchester, England. History Until the 1940s, criminal court cases were heard at the Manchester Assize Courts. However, the assize ...

, and to the High Court Bench in 1960. According to Graeme Williams, he had the distinction of serving in every Assize town in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

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, and published an account of these in 1972 in his book ''Farewell To The Assizes''.

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1903 births 1996 deaths Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1935–1945 UK MPs 1945–1950 UK MPs 1950–1951 UK MPs 1951–1955 UK MPs 1955–1959 English King's Counsel Knights Bachelor 20th-century English lawyers {{England-Conservative-UK-MP-1900s-stub