Gordon Hewart, 1st Viscount Hewart, (7 January 1870 – 5 May 1943) was a politician and judge in the United Kingdom.

Background and education

Hewart was born in

Bury, Lancashire Bury ( ) is a market town on the River Irwell in Greater Manchester, England. Metropolitan Borough of Bury is administered from the town, which had an estimated population of 78,723 in 2015. The town is within the Historic counties of Englan ...

, the eldest son of Giles Hewart, a draper, and Annie Elizabeth Jones. He was educated at

Bury Grammar School (The key that opens sacred doors) , established = , type = Independent day schoolGrammar school , religion = Church of England , head_label = Headmaster , head ...

, Manchester Grammar School and University College, Oxford.

Political and legal career

Hewart began his career as a journalist for the ''

Manchester Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' and the ''

Morning Leader ''The Morning Leader'' is a Sri Lankan English-language newspaper. It is published by Leader Publications (Pvt) Ltd. Its sister publications are The Sunday Leader and Iruresa. ''The Morning Leader'' was refounded by Lasantha Wickramatunge Lasa ...

''. 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 ...

at the Inner Temple in 1902, joining the Northern Circuit. He took silk in 1912. He was a Liberal Member of Parliament for

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...

from 1913, and, after the constituency was divided in 1918, Leicester East. An advanced Liberal, he was appointed Solicitor General in 1916, receiving the customary knighthood, and was sworn of the

Privy Council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

in 1918. He was

Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

from 10 January 1919 to 6 March 1922. He was given a seat in the Cabinet in 1921. While in office, he refused offers to become

Chief Secretary for Ireland The Chief Secretary for Ireland was a key political office in the British administration in Ireland. Nominally subordinate to the Lord Lieutenant, and officially the "Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant", from the early 19th century un ...

or Home Secretary; at the time, the Attorney General had the right of first refusal for the post of Lord Chief Justice, which was Hewart's ambition.

Lord Chief Justice

On the resignation of the Earl of Reading as

Lord Chief Justice of England Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or ar ...

in 1921, Hewart asked to succeed him. However, David Lloyd George was reluctant to lose him, and as a compromise the 77-year-old Sir A. T. Lawrence ( Lord Trevethin from August 1921) was appointed instead as a stop-gap; he was required to furnish an undated letter of resignation to Lloyd George, an arrangement which scandalised many:

Lord Birkenhead Earl of Birkenhead was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1922 for the noted lawyer and Conservative politician F. E. Smith, 1st Viscount Birkenhead. He was Solicitor-General in 1915, Attorney-General from 1915 to ...

thought it 'illegal', while judges boycotted the farewell ceremony for Lord Reading. On 3 March 1922, Trevethin 'resigned' (an event which he learned from '' The Times''), and Hewart was duly appointed

on 8 March 1922, and was elevated to the peerage as Baron Hewart, of Bury, in the County of Lancaster on 24 March 1922. In May 1922 Hewart was closely involved in the drafting of the Constitution of the Irish Free State. He worked closely with his Irish counterpart, Hugh Kennedy in May 1922 to finalise the text in time for elections the following month. Gordon Hewart

In 1929 Hewart published ''

The New Despotism ''The New Despotism'' is a book written by the Lord Hewart, Lord Chief Justice of England, and published in 1929 by Ernest Benn Limited. Hewart described this "new despotism" as "to subordinate Parliament, to evade the Courts, and to render the wi ...

'', in which he asserted that the

rule of law The rule of law is the political philosophy that all citizens and institutions within a country, state, or community are accountable to the same laws, including lawmakers and leaders. The rule of law is defined in the ''Encyclopedia Britannica ...

in Britain was being undermined by the executive at the expense of the legislature and the courts. This book was very controversial and led to the appointment of a Committee on Ministers' Powers—chaired by the Earl of Donoughmore—but its Report rejected Hewart's arguments. He has been described as "one of the most vigorous and vociferous believers in the impeccability of the English jury system of this or any other century".The Killing of Julia Wallace, by Jonathan Goodman (Headline, London, 1987), p.251 However, in 1931, Hewart made legal history, when (sitting with Mr Justice Branson and Mr Justice Hawke) he quashed the conviction for murder of William Herbert Wallace, on the grounds that the conviction was not supported by the weight of the evidence. In other words, the jury was wrong. Lord Hewart was the originator (paraphrased from the original) of the aphorism "Not only must Justice be done; it must also be ''seen to be done''." In 1940 Hewart was asked by telephone by 10 Downing Street to resign; he duly did so on 12 October 1940. On his retirement he was created Viscount Hewart, of Bury in the County Palatine of Lancaster, on 1 November 1940. He died 5 May 1943 in Totteridge, Barnet,

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

aged 73.

Family

Lord Hewart married twice; first in 1892 Sarah Wood Riley, daughter of J. H. Riley and secondly in 1934, Jean Stewart, the daughter of J. R. Stewart. With his first wife he had a daughter Katharine and a son and heir, Hugh. When he died in Totteridge, on 5 May 1943, his titles were inherited by his son, Hugh Hewart, 2nd Viscount Hewart.

Arms

Notable decisions

*'' Rex v Sussex Justices, ex parte McCarthy'' *'' Rex v Wallace''

Notes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hewart, Gordon 1870 births 1943 deaths Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Lord chief justices of England and Wales Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom UK MPs 1910–1918 UK MPs 1918–1922 UK MPs who were granted peerages Attorneys General for England and Wales Solicitors General for England and Wales People educated at Manchester Grammar School Alumni of University College, Oxford People from Bury, Greater Manchester People educated at Bury Grammar School Knights Bachelor Members of the Inner Temple Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for constituencies in Lancashire Barons created by George V Viscounts created by George VI