Sir John Edward Singleton (18 January 1885 – 6 January 1957) was a British politician and judge.

Early life and career

Singleton was born in St Michael's on Wyre,

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

, and was educated at

Lancaster Royal Grammar School Lancaster Royal Grammar School (LRGS) is a selective grammar school (day and boarding) for boys aged 11–18 in Lancaster, Lancashire, England. Old students belong to The Old Lancastrians. The school's sixth form opened to girls in 2019. LRGS i ...

and Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he read Law, obtaining a

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. He was called to the bar at the

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in 1906, and joined the

Northern Circuit {{Use dmy dates, date=November 2019 The Northern Circuit is a court circuit in England. It dates from 1176 when Henry II sent his judges on circuit to do justice in his name. The Circuit encompassed the whole of the North of England but in 1876 i ...

. During

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he served in the Royal Field Artillery, achieving the rank of captain. He was also mentioned in dispatches. He became a King's Counsel in 1922. In the 1922 general election, he was elected to the

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for Lancaster as a

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, but was unseated in the 1923 general election by the Liberal candidate. After his defeat, he returned to the bar; he was

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in the

Isle of Man ) , anthem = "O Land of Our Birth" , image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg , image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg , mapsize = , map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe , map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green) in Europe ...

between 1928 and 1932, and

Recorder Recorder or The Recorder may refer to: Newspapers * ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper * ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US * ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a news ...

of Preston between 1928 and 1934.

Judicial career

Singleton was appointed a judge of the

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of the High Court in 1934, receiving the customary

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. In 1936, he presided over the murder trial of

Buck Ruxton Buck Ruxton (born Bukhtyar Chompa Rustomji Ratanji Hakim; 21 March 1899 – 12 May 1936) was an Indian-born physician convicted and subsequently hanged for the September 1935 murders of his common-law wife, Isabella Ruxton ( née Kerr), and the ...

at the Manchester Assizes. During

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, he was asked by the Cabinet to

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on the effectiveness of the

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's strategic bombing campaign. In 1946, he served as the British chairman of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry on Mandatory Palestine.

Richard Crossman Richard Howard Stafford Crossman (15 December 1907 – 5 April 1974) was a British Labour Party politician. A university classics lecturer by profession, he was elected a Member of Parliament in 1945 and became a significant figure among the ...

, who also served on the Committee, described Singleton as being 'intensely loyal to what he conceived to be the interests of the ritishgovernment'. An anti-Zionist, Singleton favoured the disarming of the Hagenah and the curtailment of the functions of the

Jewish Agency The Jewish Agency for Israel ( he, הסוכנות היהודית לארץ ישראל, translit=HaSochnut HaYehudit L'Eretz Yisra'el) formerly known as The Jewish Agency for Palestine, is the largest Jewish non-profit organization in the world. ...

. In 1948, Singleton was appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal, and was sworn into the Privy Council. He served on the Court of Appeal until his death in 1957.

Decisions

* '' Hartog v Colin & Shields'' 9393 All ER 566

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Singleton, John Edward 1885 births 1957 deaths UK MPs 1922–1923 Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Lords Justices of Appeal Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom English King's Counsel Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge Knights Bachelor Members of the Inner Temple Queen's Bench Division judges 20th-century English lawyers