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(Redirected from William Ivor Jennings) British lawyer and academic

Sir Ivor JenningsKBE QC FBA


Vice Chancellor of University of Ceylon
In office 1942–1954
Preceded by	None
Succeeded by	Sir Nicholas Attygalle

Personal details
Born	(1903-05-16)16 May 1903 Bristol, England
Died	19 December 1965(1965-12-19) (aged 62) Cambridge, England
Profession	Lawyer, academic

Sir William Ivor Jennings KBE QC FBA (Sinhala: ශ්‍රීමත් අයිවර් ජෙනින්ග්ස්) (16 May 1903 – 19 December 1965) was a British lawyer and academic. He served as the vice chancellor of the University of Cambridge (1961–63) and the University of Ceylon (1942–55).

Education

Jennings was educated at Queen Elizabeth's Hospital, Bristol (a boarding school), at Bristol Grammar School, and at St Catharine's College, Cambridge.

Career

Jennings joined the University of Leeds as a lecturer in law in 1925 and became a Holt Scholar of Gray's Inn and was called to the bar in 1928. The following year he joined the London School of Economics as lecturer in law.

Jennings was sent to Ceylon by the British Government in 1942, as the Principal of the University College, Colombo with a mandate to create a university for that land, then a Crown colony. The institution, on the model of University of London, was dubbed the University of Ceylon and was first established in Colombo, the capital city, then partially transferred in 1952 to a purpose-built campus in Peradeniya. During World War II he served as the Deputy Civil Defence Commissioner.

He was knighted in 1948, made a King's Counsel in 1949, and awarded the KBE in 1955. In 1955, Jennings received an honorary doctorate by vote of the senate of the University of Ceylon to recognize his work in creating and building the institution. A hall of residence at the University of Peradeniya is named in his honour.

In the same year (1955) he returned to Britain to take up the post of Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He subsequently served a term as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, a position which at that time rotated among the heads of the colleges.

Jennings married Helen Emily Konsalik in 1928 and had two daughters, Shirley (Jennings) Watson and Claire (Jennings) Dewing. Together with his wife and daughter Claire, he was aboard the MS Lakonia, a Greek-owned cruise ship, when it caught fire and sank north of Madeira on 22 December 1963, with the loss of 128 lives.

Constitutional law

Jennings was an authority on constitutional law and is author of a definitive book on the workings of the then British constitution. He advised D. S. Senanayake in drafting the Constitution of Ceylon to form the Dominion of Ceylon. He then served as constitutional adviser to the Government of Pakistan.

He was a member of the Reid Commission from June 1956 to 1957, which was responsible for drafting the Constitution of the Federation of Malaya (now Malaysia).

In 1959, he was an advisor to the committee to draft the constitution of Nepal, which was named "Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal,1959."

Partial bibliography

The Road to Peradeniya
Constitutional Laws of the British Empire (1938), later reissued as Constitutional Laws of the Commonwealth (1957)
Parliament (1939)
A Federation for Western Europe (1940)
Party Politics (1955)
The Approach to Self-Government
The Law and the Constitution (5th Edition) (1959)
Principles of Local Government Law (4th Edition) (1960)
The British Commonwealth of Nations (1st Ed. 1948, 2nd Ed. 1954, 3rd. Ed. 1956, 4th Revised Ed. 1961)
Cabinet Government (3rd Edition) (1965)
The British Constitution (5th Edition) (1966)

References

Robson, W. A. "Jennings, Sir (William) Ivor". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/34181. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
"Ivor Jennings saga in Ceylon during World War II". LankaLibrary. 2005. Retrieved 10 June 2010.
"Sir Ivor: First Vice Chancellor of University of Ceylon". Rootsweb. 2003. Retrieved 10 June 2010.
First Vice Chancellor of University of Ceylon
"Sir Ivor Jennings: The multifaceted educationist". Archived from the original on 5 April 2008. Retrieved 4 June 2013.

External links

Academic offices
Preceded byNone	Vice Chancellor of the University of Ceylon 1942–1945	Succeeded bySir Nicholas Attygalle
Preceded byHenry Roy Dean	Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge 1955–1965	Succeeded byWilliam Alexander Deer
Preceded byHerbert Butterfield	Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge 1961–1963	Succeeded byJohn Sandwith Boys Smith

v t e Masters of Trinity Hall, Cambridge
1350 Robert de Stretton 1355 Adam Wickmer 1384 Robert Braunch 1413 Henry Wells 1429 Marmaduke Lumley 1443 Simon Dalling 1453 Simon Thornham 1471 William Dalling 1502 Edward Shouldham 1505 John Wright 1512 Walter Huke 1520 Thomas Larke 1525 Stephen Gardiner (1525–1552) 1549 Walter Haddon 1552 William Mowse 1553 Stephen Gardiner 1555 Henry Harvey 1584 Thomas Preston 1598 John Cowell 1611 Clement Corbet 1626 Thomas Eden 1645 John Selden 1660 Robert King 1645 John Bond 1676 Thomas Exton 1688 George Oxenden 1702 George Bramston 1710 Nathaniel Lloyd 1735 Edward Simpson 1764 James Marriott 1803 William Wynne 1815 Thomas Le Blanc 1843 Herbert Jenner-Fust 1852 Thomas Geldart 1877 Henry James Sumner Maine 1888 Henry Latham 1902 Edward Beck 1919 Henry Bond 1929 Henry Roy Dean 1955 Ivor Jennings 1966 William Alexander Deer 1975 Morris Sugden 1986 John Lyons 2000 Peter Clarke 2004 Martin Daunton 2014 Jeremy Morris 2022 Mary Hockaday

Masters of Trinity Hall, Cambridge

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