Sir Lucius Abel John Granville Ram,
KCB,
QC,
JP (24 June 1885 – 23 December 1952), commonly known as Sir Granville Ram, was an Anglo-Irish lawyer and parliamentary draftsman.
Early life
Ram was born in
Belgravia
Belgravia () is a district in Central London, covering parts of the areas of both the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
Belgravia was known as the 'Five Fields' during the Tudor Period, and became a danger ...
on 24 June 1885; his father, John Abel Ram,
KC, practised at the parliamentary bar and specialised in local government matters; his mother, Mary Grace, was the daughter of the Irish peer
Lucius O'Brien, 13th Baron Inchiquin
Lucius (McEdward) O'Brien, 13th Baron Inchiquin (5 December 1800 – 22 March 1872), known as Sir Lucius O'Brien, 5th Baronet from 1837 to 1855, was an Irish politician and nobleman. He is remembered respectfully in County Clare for his relief ...
.
[Jason Tomes]
"Ram, Sir (Lucius Abel John) Granville"
''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (Oxford University Press, September 2004). Retrieved 7 November 2018. After schooling at
Eton, Ram went up to
Exeter College, Oxford
(Let Exeter Flourish)
, old_names = ''Stapeldon Hall''
, named_for = Walter de Stapledon, Bishop of Exeter
, established =
, sister_college = Emmanuel College, Cambridge
, rector = Sir Richard Trainor
...
, and graduated in 1909; he then spent a year as a pupil in
H. A. McCardie's chambers before being
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 1910. He was commissioned into the
Hertfordshire Yeomanry
The Hertfordshire Yeomanry was a Yeomanry Cavalry regiment of the British Army that could trace its formation to the late 18th century. First seeing mounted service in the Second Boer War and World War I, it subsequently converted to artillery. Th ...
in 1910, and served in
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...
,
Gallipoli
The Gallipoli peninsula (; tr, Gelibolu Yarımadası; grc, Χερσόνησος της Καλλίπολης, ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles s ...
and
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
with them during the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
, rising to the rank of
Captain
Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
.
["Sir Granville Ram", ''The Times'' (London), 27 December 1952, p. 6.]
Career
With the war over, in 1919 he entered the
civil service
The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...
without competition and was appointed a junior solicitor to the
Ministry of Labour
The Ministry of Labour ('' UK''), or Labor ('' US''), also known as the Department of Labour, or Labor, is a government department responsible for setting labour standards, labour dispute mechanisms, employment, workforce participation, training, a ...
.
London Gazette
', 2 December 1919 (issue 31669), p. 14933. He succeeded
Clive Lawrence as the Ministry's solicitor in 1923 and two years later joined the
Office of the Parliamentary Counsel as Third Parliamentary Counsel; he was promoted to Second Parliamentary Counsel in 1929 but was overlooked when Sir
Maurice Gwyer
Sir Maurice Linford Gwyer, (25 April 1878 – 12 October 1952) was a British lawyer, judge, and academic administrator. He served as Vice-Chancellor of Delhi University from 1938 to 1950, and Chief Justice of India from 1937 to 1943). He is c ...
was appointed from outside the office as
First Parliamentary Counsel in 1933. Ram was, however, promoted when Gwyer resigned in 1937 and served as First Parliamentary Counsel until his own retirement in 1947.
["Ram, Sir (Lucius Abel John) Granville"](_blank)
''Who Was Who'' (online edition, Oxford University Press, December 2017). Retrieved 7 November 2018.
Ram's work in the OPC encompassed a range of important acts. He was responsible for drafting the
Trade Disputes Act 1927;
under Gwyer, he was allowed to draft a number of acts alone, including the
Unemployment Act 1934 and the
Public Order Act 1936
The Public Order Act 1936 (1 Edw. 8 & 1 Geo. 6 c. 6) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed to control extremist political movements in the 1930s such as the British Union of Fascists (BUF).
Largely the work of Home Office ci ...
; he worked with his superior on the
Abdication Act 1936, which allowed
Edward VIII
Edward VIII (Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David; 23 June 1894 – 28 May 1972), later known as the Duke of Windsor, was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire and Emperor of India from 20 January 1 ...
to
abdicate. As First Parliamentary Counsel, he drafted wartime legislation, most notably the
Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1940, and the landmark
Education Act 1944
The Education Act 1944 (7 and 8 Geo 6 c. 31) made major changes in the provision and governance of secondary schools in England and Wales. It is also known as the "Butler Act" after the President of the Board of Education, R. A. Butler. Historians ...
; for the first two years of the
Attlee government, Ram was responsible for overseeing its sweeping reforms turned into legislation. His 1945 memorandum on the eponymous
Ram doctrine has become a famous explanation of the
UK government's common law powers. He was also keen to reform and consolidate
statute law
Statutory law or statute law is written law passed by a body of legislature. This is opposed to oral or customary law; or regulatory law promulgated by the executive or common law of the judiciary. Statutes may originate with national, state leg ...
and, on retirement from the OPC in 1947, he served until his death as Chairman of the
Statute Law Committee The Statute Law Committee was appointed for the purpose of superintending the publication of the first revised edition of the statutes in the United Kingdom. It also prepared the bills for Statute Law Revision Acts up to, and including, the Statut ...
and was responsible for 29
consolidation acts after the committee was given new powers to recommend minor amendments.
According to
Jason Tomes
Jason Tomes is a historian with a doctorate of philosophy.
Personal life
Between the years 1993 and 1995, he taught in Poland at Warsaw University and Adam Mickiewicz University. Since 1996, he has lectured in history and politics at Boston Unive ...
writing in the ''
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...
'', Ram was "perhaps less scholarly and certainly more rumbustious than the typical parliamentary counsel"; he ran the OPC like his own
chambers, and was defensive of his staff to outside criticism, but could be highly critical himself, if also keen to help their careers. The "dominant figure" in the OPC for many years,
he was appointed a Companion of the
Order of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved bathing (as a symbol of purification) a ...
in 1931 and promoted to Knight Commander seven years later. Outside of the OPC, Ram was a
magistrate
The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judic ...
for
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 gov ...
from 1923, and was Chairman of the county's
Quarter Sessions
The courts of quarter sessions or quarter sessions were local courts traditionally held at four set times each year in the Kingdom of England from 1388 (extending also to Wales following the Laws in Wales Act 1535). They were also established in ...
from 1946 until his death. He was appointed 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 1943 and served as a
Church Commissioner after 1948. He died on 23 December 1952, leaving a widow (Elizabeth, daughter of E. A. Mitchell-Innes,
CBE) and five children.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ram, Granville
1885 births
1952 deaths
Members of the Inner Temple
British King's Counsel
Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath
20th-century English lawyers
First Parliamentary Counsel
English justices of the peace