John Anthony Hardinge Giffard, 3rd Earl of Halsbury FRS (4 June 1908 – 14 January 2000), was a British

crossbencher A crossbencher is an independent or minor party member of some legislatures, such as the British House of Lords and the Parliament of Australia. They take their name from the crossbenches, between and perpendicular to the government and oppositi ...

peer and scientist. Halsbury succeeded to the title in 1943.

Early life

Giffard was educated at

Ludgrove School Ludgrove School is an English independent boys preparatory boarding school. Ludgrove was founded in 1892 at Ludgrove Hall in Middlesex by the Old Etonian sportsman Arthur Dunn. Dunn had been employed as a master at Elstree School, which sent boys ...

(where a schoolmaster inspired an interest in astronomy) and

Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. Eton may also refer to: Places *Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England * Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States * Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...

. His years at Eton were highly successful, as he was a house captain, rowed in the school eight, and was elected to the small band of school prefects known as Pop.

Career

Giffard was Managing Director of the

National Research Development Corporation The National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) was a non-departmental government body established by the British Government to transfer technology from the public sector to the private sector. History The NRDC was established by Attlee's La ...

1949–1959, after having been Director of Research of

Decca Record Company Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934 by Lewis, Jack Kapp, American Decca's first president, and Milton Rackmil, who later became American Decca's president. In ...

1947–1949, and previously worked for

Lever Brothers Lever Brothers was a British manufacturing company founded in 1885 by two brothers: William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme (1851–1925), and James Darcy Lever (1854–1916). They invested in and successfully promoted a new soap-making p ...

, and Brown-Firth Research Laboratories. Subsequently he served on many public bodies, including chairing the Committee on

Decimal Currency Decimalisation or decimalization (see spelling differences) is the conversion of a system of currency or of weights and measures to units related by powers of 10. Most countries have decimalised their currencies, converting them from non-decimal ...

(1961–1963). Between 1966 and 1997 he was

Chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

Brunel University Brunel University London is a public research university located in the Uxbridge area of London, England. It was founded in 1966 and named after the Victorian engineer and pioneer of the Industrial Revolution, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. In June 1 ...

. He was

President of the British Computer Society Below is a list of presidents of the British Computer Society from the inception of the BCS in 1957 onwards, with years of office. * 1957–1960 Prof. Sir Maurice V. Wilkes FRS FREng * * 1960–1961 Frank Yates CBE FRS * * 1961–1962 Dudl ...

during 1969–70. In 1970 he was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the

British Psychological Society The British Psychological Society (BPS) is a representative body for psychologists and psychology in the United Kingdom. History It was founded on 24 October 1901 at University College London (UCL) as ''The Psychological Society'', the organ ...

. In addition, he was also a friend of

J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philology, philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was ...

and was one of the few people to read ''

The Silmarillion ''The Silmarillion'' () is a collection of myths and stories in varying styles by the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien. It was edited and published posthumously by his son Christopher Tolkien in 1977, assisted by the fantasy author Guy Gavriel ...

'' in Tolkien's lifetime, in 1957.Carpenter, Humphrey (ed.),

The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien ''The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien'' is a selection of J. R. R. Tolkien's letters published in 1981, edited by Tolkien's biographer Humphrey Carpenter assisted by Christopher Tolkien. The selection from a large mass of materials contains 354 lett ...

, letters 174 & 204. His grandmother was the

Edwardian The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910 and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victori ...

couturiere Lady Duff-Gordon, otherwise known by her professional name ''Lucile'', who was a survivor of the disaster.

References

External links

*
Obituary from The Guardian
1908 births 2000 deaths British chief executives Earls in the Peerage of the United Kingdom Fellows of the Royal Society People associated with Brunel University London Presidents of the British Computer Society People educated at Ludgrove School People educated at Eton College {{UK-earl-stub