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Boyd Merriman, 1st Baron Merriman

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British Conservative politician and judge

The Right HonourableThe Lord MerrimanGCVO OBE PC
President of the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division
In office
2 October 1933 – 18 January 1962
Preceded byThe Lord Merrivale
Succeeded byThe Lord Simon of Glaisdale
Solicitor-General for England
In office
26 January 1932 – 29 September 1933
MonarchGeorge V
Prime MinisterRamsay MacDonald
Preceded bySir Thomas Inskip
Succeeded bySir Donald Somervell
In office
28 March 1928 – 5 June 1929
MonarchGeorge V
Prime MinisterStanley Baldwin
Preceded bySir Thomas Inskip
Succeeded bySir James Melville
Personal details
Born28 April 1880
Died18 January 1962 (aged 81)

Frank Boyd Merriman, 1st Baron Merriman of Knutsford, GCVO, OBE, PC (28 April 1880 – 18 January 1962), known as Boyd Merriman, was a British Conservative politician and judge.

Education

Merriman was born in Knutsford, Cheshire, and educated at Winchester College. He did not go to university, but became an articled clerk with a firms of solicitors in Manchester, and later studied for the bar, and was a pupil in Gordon Hewart's chambers. He was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1904. During World War I, he served with the Manchester Regiment and was appointed OBE in 1918. After the war, Merriman was made a King's Counsel (KC) in 1919, and appointed Recorder of Wigan in 1920.

Merriman had a large practice at the common law bar and on the Northern Circuit. Prominent cases in which he appeared include the 1927 libel case Wright v Gladstone, which arose of defamatory statements concerning the private life of former prime minister William Ewart Gladstone. In 1929, he represented Zionist organisations in front of the Shaw Commission, appointed to investigate the Palestine riots.

Political and judicial career

Merriman was elected at the 1924 general election as Member of Parliament (MP) for Manchester Rusholme, and served as Solicitor General under Stanley Baldwin from 1928 to 1929 and under Ramsay MacDonald from 1932 to 1933, receiving the customary knighthood upon appointment.

He left Parliament in 1933, when he was appointed as President of the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division of the High Court, when he was also sworn of the Privy Council. Under his presidency, the Division saw a steep decline in the volume of admiralty cases due to a worldwide decline in shipping, but a large increase in its divorce work, brought in part by the passage of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1937. In 1949, Merriman was considered for appointment as a lord of appeal in ordinary, but ultimately passed over in favour of Sir Cyril Radcliffe.

Merriman was elevated to the peerage in 1941 as Baron Merriman, of Knutsford in the County Palatine of Chester. In 1950 he was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO).

Family

The grave of Frank Boyd Merriman, Brompton Cemetery

Lord Merriman married three times. He married firstly Eva Mary Freer (d. 1919) in 1907. They had two daughters. He married secondly Olive McLaren (d. 1952) in 1920. He married thirdly Jane Lamb in 1953. The peerage became extinct on Lord Merriman's death in London in 1962, aged 81. He had been due to deliver a dissenting speech the House of Lords appeal Ross-Smith v Ross-Smith that day, which was instead given by Lord Hodson.

He was survived by his third wife. He is buried in Brompton Cemetery, London, on the west side of the central enclosed roundel.

Coat of arms of Boyd Merriman, 1st Baron Merriman
Crest
A serpent nowed therefrom issuant a dexter arm embowed in armour Proper garnished Or the hand grasping a short sword also Proper pommel and hilt Gold.
Escutcheon
Argent on a chevron cottised Sable between three Cornish choughs Proper as many crescents of the field.
Supporters
On the dexter side a Welsh Corgi and on the sinister side a Springer Spaniel both Proper.
Motto
Terar Dum Prosim

References

  1. "No. 33372". The London Gazette. 3 April 1928. p. 2443.
  2. Berlins, Marcel (20 March 2002). "Judging the judges". The Guardian.
  3. "No. 35065". The London Gazette. 4 February 1941. p. 691.
  4. "No. 38797". The London Gazette (Supplement). 2 January 1950. p. 5.
  5. Burke's Peerage. 1959.

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded byCharles Masterman Member of Parliament for Manchester Rusholme
1924–1933 		Succeeded byEdmund Ashworth Radford
Legal offices
Preceded bySir Thomas Inskip Solicitor General
1928–1929 		Succeeded bySir James Melville
Solicitor General
1932–1933 		Succeeded bySir Donald Somervell
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation Baron Merriman
1941–1962 		Extinct
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