Gordon Hewart, 1st Viscount Hewart

(Redirected from Lord Hewart) British politician

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The Right HonourableThe Viscount HewartPC


Lord Chief Justice of England
In office 8 March 1922 – 12 October 1940
Monarchs	George V Edward VIII George VI
Preceded by	The Lord Trevethin
Succeeded by	The Viscount Caldecote
Attorney General for England
In office 10 January 1919 – 6 March 1922
Monarch	George V
Prime Minister	David Lloyd George
Preceded by	Sir F. E. Smith
Succeeded by	Sir Ernest Pollock
Solicitor General for England
In office 10 December 1916 – 10 January 1919
Monarch	George V
Prime Minister	David Lloyd George
Preceded by	Sir George Cave
Succeeded by	Sir Ernest Pollock

Personal details
Born	Gordon Hewart 7 January 1870 Bury, Lancashire, England
Died	5 May 1943(1943-05-05) (aged 73) Totteridge, Hertfordshire, England
Political party	Liberal
Alma mater	University College, Oxford
Occupation	Politician, judge

Gordon Hewart, 1st Viscount Hewart, PC (7 January 1870 – 5 May 1943) was a politician and judge in the United Kingdom.

Background and education

Hewart was born in Bury, Lancashire, the eldest son of Giles Hewart, a draper, and Annie Elizabeth Jones. He was educated at Bury Grammar School, Manchester Grammar School and University College, Oxford.

Political and legal career

Hewart began his career as a journalist for the Manchester Guardian and the Morning Leader. He was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1902, joining the Northern Circuit. He took silk in 1912.

He was a Liberal Member of Parliament for Leicester from 1913, and, after the constituency was divided in 1918, Leicester East. An advanced Liberal, he was appointed Solicitor General in 1916, receiving the customary knighthood, and was sworn of the Privy Council in 1918. He was Attorney General from 10 January 1919 to 6 March 1922. He was given a seat in the Cabinet in 1921.

While in office, he refused offers to become Chief Secretary for Ireland or Home Secretary; at the time, the Attorney General had the right of first refusal for the post of Lord Chief Justice, which was Hewart's ambition.

Lord Chief Justice

On the resignation of the Earl of Reading as Lord Chief Justice of England in 1921, Hewart asked to succeed him. However, David Lloyd George was reluctant to lose him, and, as a compromise, the 77-year-old Sir A. T. Lawrence (Lord Trevethin from August 1921) was appointed instead as a stop-gap; he was required to furnish an undated letter of resignation to Lloyd George, an arrangement which scandalised many: Lord Birkenhead thought it 'illegal', while judges boycotted the farewell ceremony for Lord Reading.

On 3 March 1922, Trevethin 'resigned' (an event which he learned from The Times), and Hewart was duly appointed Lord Chief Justice of England on 8 March 1922, and was elevated to the peerage as Baron Hewart, of Bury, in the County of Lancaster on 24 March 1922.

In May 1922 Hewart was closely involved in the drafting of the Constitution of the Irish Free State. He worked closely with his Irish counterpart, Hugh Kennedy in May 1922 to finalise the text in time for elections the following month.

In 1929, Hewart published The New Despotism, in which he asserted that the rule of law in Britain was being undermined by the executive at the expense of the legislature and the courts. This book was very controversial and led to the appointment of a Committee on Ministers' Powers—chaired by the Earl of Donoughmore—but its Report rejected Hewart's arguments.

He has been described as "one of the most vigorous and vociferous believers in the impeccability of the English jury system of this or any other century". However, in 1931, Hewart made legal history, when (sitting with Mr Justice Branson and Mr Justice Hawke) he quashed the conviction for murder of William Herbert Wallace, on the grounds that the conviction could not be supported by the evidence. In other words, the jury was wrong.

Lord Hewart was the originator (paraphrased from the original) of the aphorism "Not only must Justice be done; it must also be seen to be done."

In 1940, Hewart was asked by telephone by 10 Downing Street to resign; he duly did so on 12 October 1940. On his retirement, he was created Viscount Hewart, of Bury in the County Palatine of Lancaster, on 1 November 1940.

Death

He died 5 May 1943 in Totteridge, Barnet, Hertfordshire, aged 73.

Family

Lord Hewart married twice; first in 1892 Sarah Wood Riley, daughter of J. H. Riley and secondly in 1934, Jean Stewart, the daughter of J. R. Stewart. With his first wife he had a daughter Katharine and a son and heir, Hugh. When he died in Totteridge, on 5 May 1943, his titles were inherited by his son, Hugh Hewart, 2nd Viscount Hewart.

Arms

Coat of arms of Gordon Hewart, 1st Viscount Hewart
	Crest In front of the trunk of a tree sprouting thereon an owl Proper three crosses patée fesswise Or. Escutcheon Argent on a fess Sable between two owls Proper in chief and in base a cross patée of the second a fasces Or. Supporters On either side an owl Proper charged with a fasces erect Or. Motto Nulla Retrorsum.

Notable decisions

Notes

"No. 32653". The London Gazette. 28 March 1922. pp. 2507–2508.
BRITISH INVOLVEMENT IN THE CREATION OF THE FIRST IRISH CONSTITUTION by Thomas Mohr
Lord Hewart (1929). The New Despotism. London: Ernest Benn Limited. p. 17. Retrieved 6 November 2024 – via Internet Archive.
"Lord Hewart's Fear of "New Despotism"". Advertiser (Adelaide, Sa : 1931 – 1954). 14 December 1934. p. 25.
The Killing of Julia Wallace, by Jonathan Goodman (Headline, London, 1987), p. 251
"The origins of "Justice must be seen to be done"". barandbench.com. 18 April 2020. Retrieved 21 January 2023.
"No. 34984". The London Gazette. 1 November 1940. p. 6348.
Burke's Peerage. 1949.

References

Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages

External links

Works by or about Gordon Hewart, 1st Viscount Hewart at the Internet Archive
Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Gordon Hewart

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded byEliot Crawshay-Williams and Ramsay MacDonald	Member of Parliament for Leicester 1913–1918 With: Ramsay MacDonald	Constituency abolished
New constituency	Member of Parliament for Leicester East 1918–1922	Succeeded byGeorge Banton
Legal offices
Preceded bySir George Cave	Solicitor General for England and Wales 1916–1919	Succeeded bySir Ernest Pollock
Preceded bySir F. E. Smith	Attorney General for England and Wales 1919–1922	Succeeded bySir Ernest Pollock
Preceded byThe Lord Trevethin	Lord Chief Justice of England 1922–1940	Succeeded byThe Viscount Caldecote
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation	Viscount Hewart 1940–1943	Succeeded byHugh Hewart
New creation	Baron Hewart 1922–1943	Succeeded byHugh Hewart

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