Christopher Nyholm Shawcross, QC (20 June 1905 – 18 August 1973) was a British

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...

and

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

politician. He was the younger son of John Shawcross and Hilda Constance Asser. He was educated at

Dulwich College Dulwich College is a 2–19 independent, day and boarding school for boys in Dulwich, London, England. As a public school, it began as the College of God's Gift, founded in 1619 by Elizabethan actor Edward Alleyn, with the original purpose of ...

and

University College, Oxford University College (in full The College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford, colloquially referred to as "Univ") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It has a claim to being the oldest college of the univer ...

, before going on to study law at

Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and Wale ...

.''Obituary: Mr C. N. Shawcross'', The Times, 21 August 1973, p.14 He was

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

in 1931 and practised at the Common Law Bar in London and in the Midland Circuit. With the outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Shawcross joined the

Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve The Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) is one of the two volunteer reserve forces of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. Together with the Royal Marines Reserve, they form the Maritime Reserve. The present RNR was formed by merging the original Ro ...

, where he reached the rank of

Commander Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countries this naval rank is termed frigate captain. ...

. At the

1945 general election The following elections occurred in the year 1945. Africa * 1945 South-West African legislative election Asia * 1945 Indian general election Australia * 1945 Fremantle by-election Europe * 1945 Albanian parliamentary election * 1945 Bulgaria ...

he was returned as Labour MP for

Widnes Widnes ( ) is an Industrial city, industrial town in the Borough of Halton, Cheshire, England, which at the 2011 United Kingdom census, 2011 census had a population of 61,464. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, it is on t ...

. He was a

Europhile A Europhile is a person who is fond of, admires, or loves European culture, society, history, food, music etc.

parliamentarian, serving on the Parliamentary Committee on the

Channel Tunnel The Channel Tunnel (french: Tunnel sous la Manche), also known as the Chunnel, is a railway tunnel that connects Folkestone (Kent, England, UK) with Coquelles ( Hauts-de-France, France) beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover. ...

, the all party group for European Union, and the British Council of the

European Movement The European Movement International is a lobbying association that coordinates the efforts of associations and national councils with the goal of promoting European integration, and disseminating information about it. History The origins of the ...

. He retired from politics in 1950, becoming

Recorder of Nottingham The Recorder of Nottingham is the highest appointed legal officer of the Crown within the Nottingham City and Nottinghamshire County areas of England. Judge Gregory Dickinson KC was appointed Recorder of Nottingham in 2016. List of Recorders of ...

. He became a

King's Counsel In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel ( post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of a queen, is a lawyer (usually a barrister or ...

in 1949, and pursued a distinguished legal career. In particular he worked in new areas of law, producing books on motor insurance and air law. he retired from the Bar in 1961, but returned to practice in the

South Eastern Circuit The Circuit Court ( ga, An Chúirt Chuarda) of Ireland is an intermediate level court of local and limited jurisdiction which hears both civil and criminal matters. On the criminal side the Circuit Court hears criminal matters tried on indictmen ...

in 1969. Christopher Shawcross married twice. His 1931 marriage to Doreen Burrows was dissolved in 1949, and he married Maridel Chance in the same year and they had two children.Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition, Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 1999, p. 2594 He was the younger brother of

Hartley Shawcross Hartley William Shawcross, Baron Shawcross, (4 February 1902 – 10 July 2003), known from 1945 to 1959 as Sir Hartley Shawcross, was an English barrister and Labour politician who served as the lead British prosecutor at the Nuremberg War Cri ...

, also a distinguished lawyer and Labour politician. He died at his home in

Haywards Heath Haywards Heath is a town in West Sussex, England, south of London, north of Brighton, south of Gatwick Airport and northeast of the county town, Chichester. Nearby towns include Burgess Hill to the southwest, Horsham to the northwest, Crawl ...

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

, aged 68.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Shawcross, Christopher N 1905 births 1973 deaths Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1945–1950 People educated at Dulwich College Alumni of University College, Oxford Members of Gray's Inn Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve personnel of World War II British barristers 20th-century King's Counsel British King's Counsel