Sir Lawrence Austin Byrne (17 September 1896 – 1 November 1965), also known as Laurence Byrne, was a barrister and High Court judge. He is perhaps best known for the prosecution 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, ...

("Lord Haw-Haw") in 1945, and as the presiding judge in the case of '' R v Penguin Books Ltd.'' in 1960, the prosecution of

Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.Obscene Publications Act 1959 The Obscene Publications Act 1959 (c. 66) is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom Parliament that significantly reformed the law related to obscenity in England and Wales. Prior to the passage of the Act, the law on publishing obscene mater ...

for the publication of

D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...

's '' Lady Chatterley's Lover''.

Biography

Byrne was born into a wealthy Irish Catholic family at Cronybyrne House (Croneybyrne House), near Rathdrum, County Wicklow. He served as a lieutenant in the

Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment The Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey) was a line infantry regiment of the English and later the British Army from 1661 to 1959. It was the senior English line infantry regiment of the British Army, behind only the Royal Scots in the British Arm ...

in the First World War. He married in 1928. He was called to the bar at

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn ...

in 1918 and quickly became known for his skill as an advocate in criminal cases. Starting as a defence barrister, he was soon asked to undertake prosecutions for the Crown at the Old Bailey, where he was particularly active during the 1930s and 1940s. He was offered the position of Director of Public Prosecutions in 1944 when Sir Edward Atkinson retired, but declined; Atkinson's successor, Sir Theobald Mathew, was responsible for authorising the prosecution of Penguin Books in 1960. With Attorney General Sir

Hartley Shawcross Hartley William Shawcross, Baron Shawcross, (4 February 1902 – 10 July 2003), known from 1945 to 1959 as Sir Hartley Shawcross, was an English barrister and Labour politician who served as the lead British prosecutor at the Nuremberg War ...

and Gerald Howard, he was one of three barrister for the prosecution in the trial of

(Lord Haw-Haw) in 1945. He became

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 Rochester in 1939, and then became a High Court judge in 1945, being first assigned to the

Probate, Divorce and Admiralty 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 ...

before moving 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 ...

in 1947. In the case of R v Clarke in 1949, he held that a man who was judicially separated from his wife could be guilty of raping his wife, as an exception to a common law rule that was not overturned until the R v R case in 1991. The Penguin Books case was the last at which Byrne presided. He retired in 1960 and lived in

Enniskerry Enniskerry (historically ''Annaskerry'', from ) is a village in County Wicklow, Ireland. The population was 1,889 at the 2016 census. Location The village is situated on the Glencullen River in the foothills of the Wicklow Mountains in the ea ...

in Ireland before moving to Essex in 1964, where he died at Gosfield Hall.

References

Archive of the ''Catholic Herald'' for 5 November 1965
* Obituary, ''The Times'', 2 November 1965, page 12, Issue 56468 {{DEFAULTSORT:Byrne, Lawrence 1896 births 1965 deaths 20th-century English judges Members of the Middle Temple Knights Bachelor Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division judges Queen's Bench Division judges People from County Wicklow