Sir Harold Simcox Kent (11 November 1903 – 4 December 1998) was a British lawyer.

Early life

Kent was born on 11 November 1903 in

Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popul ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, where his father, Percy Horace Braund Kent,

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

, MC, was a barrister in the consular court specialising in Anglo-Chinese commerce; his mother, Anna Mary ''née'' Simcox, was the daughter of an English

clergy Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...

man. He was educated in England: at a preparatory school in

Malvern Malvern or Malverne may refer to: Places Australia * Malvern, South Australia, a suburb of Adelaide * Malvern, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne * City of Malvern, a former local government area near Melbourne * Electoral district of Malvern, an e ...

and then

Rugby School Rugby School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in Rugby, Warwickshire, England. Founded in 1567 as a free grammar school for local boys, it is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain. Up ...

, before going up to

Merton College, Oxford Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is one of the Colleges of Oxford University, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the ...

in 1922.

Career

After graduation in 1926, Kent joined the practice of Sir

Donald Somervell Donald Bradley Somervell, Baron Somervell of Harrow, (24 August 1889 – 18 November 1960) was a British barrister, judge and Conservative Party politician. He served as Solicitor General and Attorney General from 1933 to 1945 and was briefly ...

as a pupil, and two years later 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 ...

. At the same time, the market downturn after the

Wall Street Crash The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange colla ...

led him to pursue, briefly, a literary career. He was published in ''

Punch Punch commonly refers to: * Punch (combat), a strike made using the hand closed into a fist * Punch (drink), a wide assortment of drinks, non-alcoholic or alcoholic, generally containing fruit or fruit juice Punch may also refer to: Places * Pun ...

'' and authored ''The Tenant of Smuggler's Rock'' (1930) and ''The Black Castle'' (1931). But literary pursuits did not satisfy him and the need for a regular source of income brought on by the birth of his first child encouraged him to fully return to the legal profession. He joined the office of the Second Parliamentary Counsel at the beginning of 1933 and was responsible for helping to draft legislation. In 1940 he was appointed a Parliamentary Counsel to the Treasury, where he was responsible firstly for drafting emergency wartime legislation, and then in peacetime for drafting many of the historic (and complex) acts implemented by the

Attlee government Clement Attlee was invited by King George VI to form the Attlee ministry in the United Kingdom in July 1945, succeeding Winston Churchill as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The Labour Party had won a landslide victory at the 1945 gener ...

, such as those concerning universal healthcare and the

nationalisation Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...

of major industries. In 1953, he was appointed

HM Procurator General and Treasury Solicitor The Government Legal Department (previously called the Treasury Solicitor's Department) is the largest in-house legal organisation in the United Kingdom's Government Legal Service. The department is headed by the Treasury Solicitor. This office g ...

, most notably serving as solicitor to the

Vassall Tribunal The Vassall Tribunal was a public inquiry undertaken in 1963 by the British government in the wake of the John Vassall affair. Vassall, a civil servant working in the Admiralty, had been revealed the previous year to be a Soviet spy, and considera ...

. He retired from Government service in 1963, but remained active in law: he was Standing Counsel to the General Synod of the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

from 1964 to 1972 and

Vicar-General A vicar general (previously, archdeacon) is the principal deputy of the bishop of a diocese for the exercise of administrative authority and possesses the title of local ordinary. As vicar of the bishop, the vicar general exercises the bishop's ...

of the

Province of Canterbury The Province of Canterbury, or less formally the Southern Province, is one of two ecclesiastical provinces which constitute the Church of England. The other is the Province of York (which consists of 12 dioceses). Overview The Province consist ...

from 1971 to 1976; he was, finally, Dean of the Arches from 1972 to 1976."Sir Harold Kent", ''The Times'' (London), 1 January 1999, p. 19."Kent, Sir Harold Simcox"
''Who Was Who'' (online edition, Oxford University Press, December 2007). Retrieved 31 October 2018. Kent was appointed to every grade of the

Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved Bathing#Medieval ...

: Companion in the

1946 New Year Honours The 1946 New Year Honours were appointments by many of the Commonwealth Realms of King George VI to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries, and to celebrate the passing of 1945 and the beginnin ...

, Knight Commander in the

1954 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1954 were appointments in many of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. They were announced on 1 January 1954 to celebrat ...

and, the highest, Knight Grand Cross in the

1963 Birthday Honours The Queen's Birthday Honours 1963 were appointments in many of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The appointments were made "on the occ ...

. He was made a

Queen's Counsel In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of ...

in 1973, and was awarded a Lambeth degree, Doctor of Civil Law, in 1977. In retirement, he lived in

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

. He died on 4 December 1998.

Family

Kent was survived by his son James; his wife, Zillah ''née'' Lloyd, whom he had married in 1930, died in 1987, and their daughter Margaret had died in 1963.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kent, Harold 1903 births 1998 deaths British barristers People educated at Rugby School Alumni of Merton College, Oxford Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath English King's Counsel British expatriates in China 20th-century King's Counsel Treasury Solicitors