Samuel Lowry Porter, Baron Porter, (7 February 1877 – 13 February 1956) was a British judge.

Early life and career

Born in Leeds, Porter was educated at

the Perse School (He who does things for others does them for himself) , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent day school , religion = Nondenominational Christian , president = , head_label = Head , he ...

and

Emmanuel College, Cambridge Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mon ...

, where he took a Third in Classics and a Second in Law. 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 ...

by the

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wal ...

in 1905. His legal career was interrupted by World War I. Commissioned into the British Army, he ended the war as a captain on the

general list The General Service Corps (GSC) is a corps of the British Army. Role The role of the corps is to provide specialists, who are usually on the Special List or General List. These lists were used in both World Wars for specialists and those not allo ...

. He was appointed

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

for his war service. He was appointed

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 1925. He was

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 ...

Newcastle under Lyme Newcastle-under-Lyme ( RP: , ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. The 2011 census population of the town was 75,082, whilst the wider borough had a population of 1 ...

from 1928 to 1932 and Recorder of Walsall from 1932 to 1934.

Judicial career

On 7 November 1934, he was appointed to the High Court, assigned to the

King's Bench Division The King's Bench Division (or Queen's Bench Division when the monarch is female) of the High Court of Justice deals with a wide range of common law cases and has supervisory responsibility over certain lower courts. It hears appeals on point ...

, and received the customary knighthood on 24 November. On 28 March 1938, he was appointed

Lord of Appeal in Ordinary Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, commonly known as Law Lords, were judges appointed under the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876 to the British House of Lords, as a committee of the House, effectively to exercise the judicial functions of the House of ...

(without having previously served as a

Lord Justice of Appeal A Lord Justice of Appeal or Lady Justice of Appeal is a judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, the court that hears appeals from the High Court of Justice, the Crown Court and other courts and tribunals. A Lord (or Lady) Justice ...

) and created a

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages ...

with the title Baron Porter, of Longfield in

County Tyrone County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six Counties of Northern Ireland, counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional Counties of Ireland, counties of Ireland. It is no longer used as an admini ...

. On 1 April, he was sworn of the

Privy Council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

. In 1939, he was appointed to chair the Lord Chancellor's committee on defamation law. The committee's work was delayed as a result of World War II, not producing its report until 1948. The report's conclusions were implemented by the

Defamation Act 1952 The Defamation Act 1952 (15 & 16 Geo 6 & 1 Eliz 2 c 66) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. This Act implemented recommendations contained in the Report of the Porter Committee. The recommendation made by the Committee in relatio ...

."Death of Lord Porter - Distinguished Judge", ''The Glasgow Herald'', 14 February 1956, p. 8. Porter sat on the appeal of

William Joyce William Brooke Joyce (24 April 1906 – 3 January 1946), nicknamed Lord Haw-Haw, was an American-born fascist and Nazi propaganda broadcaster during the Second World War. After moving from New York to Ireland and subsequently to England, J ...

, commonly known as "

Lord Haw-Haw Lord Haw-Haw was a nickname applied to William Joyce, who broadcast Nazi propaganda to the UK from Germany during the Second World War. The broadcasts opened with "Germany calling, Germany calling", spoken in an affected upper-class English acc ...

", who had been convicted of treason for his war-time propaganda broadcasts from Nazi Germany, and dissented from the majority. He also dissented in ''

National Anti-Vivisection Society The National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS) is an international not-for-profit animal protection group, based in London, working to end animal testing, and focused on the replacement of animals in research with advanced, scientific techniques. S ...

v Inland Revenue Commissioners'' (1948), a leading case concerning charitable trusts. Porter resigned as Lord of Appeal in 1954, having been appointed to 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 ...

as a Knight Grand Cross (GBE) in the

1951 New Year Honours The 1951 New Years Honours were appointments in 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. They were announced on 1 January 1951 for the Brit ...

. In his last years, Lord Porter took up rooms at Emmanuel College, of which he was an honorary fellow from 1937. He died at the

London Clinic The London Clinic is a private healthcare organisation and registered charity based on the corner of Devonshire Place and Marylebone Road in central London. According to HealthInvestor, it is one of England's largest private hospitals. Histor ...

on 13 November 1956, having been due to serve as Treasurer of the Inner Temple in 1957. He was unmarried.

References

1877 births 1956 deaths Law lords Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Members of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire Place of birth missing Place of death missing Knights Bachelor Queen's Bench Division judges Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge Members of the Inner Temple English King's Counsel 20th-century King's Counsel British Army General List officers Life peers created by George VI {{Life-peer-stub