Sir Charles Stafford Crossman (8 December 1870 – 1 January 1941) was an English barrister and High Court judge, who sat in the

Chancery Division The High Court of Justice in London, known properly as His Majesty's High Court of Justice in England, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, are the Senior Courts of England and Wales. Its name is abbreviated as EWHC (England ...

of the High Court from 1934 to 1941. He was the father of Labour politician

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 ...

Biography

The third son of Dr Edward Crossman, MD, Crossman was educated 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 ...

, where he was a scholar, and

New College, Oxford New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as its feeder school, New College is one of the oldest colleges at th ...

, where was a scholar and where he took first-class honours in

honour moderations Honour Moderations (or ''Mods'') are a set of examinations at the University of Oxford at the end of the first part of some degree courses (e.g., Greats or '' Literae Humaniores''). Honour Moderations candidates have a class awarded (hence the ' ...

and '' literae humaniores'', in addition of winning the Hertford scholarship in 1890. After Oxford, he returned to Winchester as an assistant master for a year. He was called the bar by

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

in 1897. After acquiring a large practice, Crossman was junior counsel to the

Board of Inland Revenue The Inland Revenue was, until April 2005, a department of the British Government responsible for the collection of direct taxation, including income tax, national insurance contributions, capital gains tax, inheritance tax, corporation tax, ...

in 1926–27, junior equity counsel to the Treasury in 1927–34, and counsel to the

Royal College of Physicians The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of physicians by examination. Founded by royal charter from King Henry VIII in 1 ...

in 1927–34. In 1934, while still at the junior bar, he was appointed to the High Court of Justice in succession to Mr Justice Maugham. He was assigned to the

and received the customary

knighthood A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

. On the bench, he was styled judicially as The Hon. Mr. Justice Crossman. Crossman sat on the High Court until his death in

Tetbury Tetbury is a town and civil parish inside the Cotswold district in England. It lies on the site of an ancient hill fort, on which an Anglo-Saxon monastery was founded, probably by Ine of Wessex, in 681. The population of the parish was 5,250 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 ...

, on 1 January 1941. The Labour politician

Tam Dalyell Sir Thomas Dalyell, 11th Baronet, , ( ; 9 August 1932 – 26 January 2017), known as Tam Dalyell, was a Scottish Labour Party politician who was a member of the House of Commons from 1962 to 2005. He represented West Lothian from 1962 to 1983 ...

wrote that Crossman was "perhaps the most distinguished, if driest, Chancery Judge of his generation". His obituary in ''

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 his law on the Bench as sound and his manner courteous and pleasant.

Personal life

Sir Charles Stafford Crossman Achievement

Crossman married Helen Elizabeth Howard, the daughter of chemicals manufacturer David Howard, DL, in 1902; they had three sons and three daughters. The Labour politician

was his son. Another son, Flying Officer Thomas Edward Crossman, was killed on active service in May 1940. Although a Conservative politically, Crossman was a close friend of future

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

prime minister

Clement Attlee Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, (3 January 18838 October 1967) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955. He was Deputy Prime Mini ...

was later apt to ascribe Attlee's suspicion of him to the fact that he caused his father distress by becoming a socialist.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Crossman, Stafford Knights Bachelor 1941 deaths People educated at Winchester College Alumni of New College, Oxford English barristers 1870 births Chancery Division judges