Sir John Gardiner Sumner Hobson, OBE, TD, PC, QC (18 April 1912 – 4 December 1967) was a British Conservative Party politician.

Life and career

Hobson was born in

Melton Mowbray Melton Mowbray () is a town in Leicestershire, England, north-east of Leicester, and south-east of Nottingham. It lies on the River Eye, known below Melton as the Wreake. The town had a population 27,670 in 2019. The town is sometimes promo ...

, the son of an officer in the

12th Royal Lancers The 12th (Prince of Wales's) Royal Lancers was a cavalry regiment of the British Army first formed in 1715. It saw service for three centuries, including the First World War and the Second World War. The regiment survived the immediate post-war ...

. Hobson was educated at Harrow and Brasenose College, Oxford, graduating with a second-class degree in History in 1934. Hobson was called to the bar 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 ...

in 1938. He became a

Queen'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 o ...

in 1957, and was Recorder of Northampton from 1958 to 1962. During World War II he served with the Northamptonshire Yeomanry, reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel. For his military service, he was appointed OBE and mentioned in dispatches. He was first elected to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

at a 1957

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

in the Warwick and Leamington constituency, caused by the resignation due to ill-health of the Conservative MP and former Prime Minister, Anthony Eden. He held the seat at the next three general elections. In 1959 Hobson represented suspected serial-killer Dr John Bodkin Adams in his failed attempt to be reinstated as a doctor. He was appointed Solicitor General in 1962, receiving 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 ...

, and serving in that post for five months before taking over as Attorney General until the Conservatives lost the 1964 general election. In 1962 he led the prosecution of the spy

John Vassall William John Christopher Vassall (20 September 1924 – 18 November 1996) was a British civil servant who spied for the Soviet Union, allegedly under pressure of blackmail, from 1954 until his arrest in 1962. Although operating only at a junior ...

. He was appointed to the Privy Council in 1963. He approved the “sordid deal” whereby Anthony Blunt was given immunity from prosecution He died in London on 4 December 1967, from an undiagnosed brain tumour.

References

External links

* 1912 births 1967 deaths 20th-century British lawyers 20th-century English lawyers Alumni of Brasenose College, Oxford Attorneys General for England and Wales British Army personnel of World War II Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Deaths from brain cancer in England Neurological disease deaths in England English King's Counsel Knights Bachelor Members of the Inner Temple Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Ministers in the Macmillan and Douglas-Home governments, 1957–1964 Northamptonshire Yeomanry officers Officers of the Order of the British Empire People educated at Harrow School People from Melton Mowbray Politicians awarded knighthoods 20th-century King's Counsel Solicitors General for England and Wales UK MPs 1955–1959 UK MPs 1959–1964 UK MPs 1964–1966 UK MPs 1966–1970 {{England-Conservative-UK-MP-1910s-stub