Sir John Armitage Stainton, KCB,

KBE KBE may refer to: * Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, post-nominal letters * Knowledge-based engineering Knowledge-based engineering (KBE) is the application of knowledge-based systems technology to the domain o ...

, QC (29 February 1888 – 6 September 1957) was a British lawyer and parliamentary draftsman.

Career

Stainton was born on 29 February 1888 to John Prout Stainton. After schooling at

Winchester College Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of the ...

, he went up to

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniqu ...

, to read

classics Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

. After graduating in 1911, 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 1913 and practised on the Western Circuit. He served in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, being commissioned into the 4th Battalion of the

Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Argyll (; archaically Argyle, in modern Gaelic, ), sometimes called Argyllshire, is a historic county and registration county of western Scotland. Argyll is of ancient origin, and corresponds to most of the part of the ancient kingdom of ...

in 1915. He was wounded and ended the war as a

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 ...

. With demobilisation he returned to his legal practice, found success in the Western Circuit and represented the

Great Western Railway Company The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

. In 1929, he joined the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel and was appointed Second Parliamentary Counsel in 1937, serving until 1946 when he became Counsel to the Lord Chairman of the Committees in the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...

, serving until retirement in 1953. While at the OPC, he drafted the Finance Bills and became an expert in

income tax An income tax is a tax imposed on individuals or entities (taxpayers) in respect of the income or profits earned by them (commonly called taxable income). Income tax generally is computed as the product of a tax rate times the taxable income. Tax ...

law; he was also responsible for the

National Insurance Act 1946 The National Insurance Act 1946 (c 67) was a British Act of Parliament passed during the Attlee ministry which established a comprehensive system of social security throughout the United Kingdom. The act meant that all who were of working age wer ...

, a highly complex piece of legislation the drafting of which ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' described as Stainton's "hardest job". It was partially due to this that he accepted the House of Lords position, which entailed less work, although it was in that capacity that he drafted the model Bill and standard clauses for

Private Bills Proposed bills are often categorized into public bills and private bills. A public bill is a proposed law which would apply to everyone within its jurisdiction. This is unlike a private bill which is a proposal for a law affecting only a single p ...

. Stainton was knighted twice, firstly as a Knight Commander of the

Order of the British Empire 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 ...

in 1939 and then again on retirement in 1953 as a Knight Commander 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 ...

. He took silk in 1947."Stainton, Sir John (Armitage)"
''Who Was Who'' (online edition, Oxford University Press, December 2007). Retrieved 8 November 2018."Sir J. Stainton", ''The Times'' (London), 7 September 1957, p. 8.

Personal life

He died on 6 September 1957 and was survived by his wife, Hon. Janet Bertha, daughter of

John Dewar, 1st Baron Forteviot John Alexander Dewar, 1st Baron Forteviot (6 June 1856 – 23 November 1929) was a Scottish businessman, elder son of the founder of Dewar's Scotch Whisky and a Liberal Member of Parliament. He is buried with his family in the family plot a ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stainton, John 1888 births 1957 deaths Members of Lincoln's Inn Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath British King's Counsel 20th-century English lawyers Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders officers British Army personnel of World War I