|
William Norman Birkett, 1st Baron Birkett, PC, QC (6 September 1883 – 10 February 1962) was a British barrister, judge, politician and preacher who served as the alternate British judge during the Nuremberg Trials. Birkett received his education at Barrow-in-Furness Grammar School. He was a Methodist preacher and a draper before attending Emmanuel College, Cambridge in 1907, to study theology, history and law. Upon graduating in 1910 he worked as a secretary and was called to the Bar in 1913. Declared medically unfit for military service during World War I, Birkett used the time to make up for his late entry into the legal profession and was appointed a King's Counsel in 1924. He became a criminal defence lawyer and acted as counsel in a number of famous cases including the second of the Brighton trunk murders. A member of the Liberal Party, he sat in Parliament for Nottingham East twice, first in 1923 and again in 1929. Despite refusing appointment to the High Court of Justice in 1928, he was offered the position again in 1941 and accepted, joining the King's Bench Division. In 1945 he served as the alternate British judge at the Nuremberg trials, and he was made a Privy Counsellor in 1947. He joined the Court of Appeal of England and Wales in 1950 but retired in 1956 when he had served for long enough to draw a pension. From 1958 he served in the House of Lords, and his speech against a private bill in 1962 saw it defeated by 70 votes to 36, two days before he died on 10 February 1962. Described as "one of the most prominent Liberal barristers in the first half of the 20th century" and "the Lord Chancellor that never was",〔 Birkett was noted for his skill as a speaker, which helped him defend clients with almost watertight cases against them. As an alternate judge, Birkett was not allowed a vote at the Nuremberg Trials, but his opinion helped shape the final judgment. During his tenure in the Court of Appeal he oversaw some of the most significant cases of the era, particularly in contract law, despite his avowed dislike of judicial work. Five of Birkett's cases were dramatised for radio by Caroline and David Stafford and broadcast on BBC Radio 4's ''Afternoon Play'' series, one on 1 June 2010 starring David Haig as Birkett and four in January 2012 starring Neil Dudgeon as Birkett. ==Early life and education== Norman was born in Ulverston, Lancashire (now part of the administrative county of Cumbria), on 6 September 1883 to Thomas Birkett, a draper, and his wife Agnes, who died in 1884 of tuberculosis.〔 He attended the Wesleyan primary school in Ulverston until 1894, when he moved to Barrow-in-Furness Grammar School. Although intelligent, Birkett was not noted as a particularly academic student and spent as much time on practical jokes as he did on his studies.〔Chandos (1963) p. 15.〕 He left school in 1898, starting work as an apprentice in one of the draper's shops owned by his father and beginning to preach. He was a popular local preacher on the local Methodist circuit,〔Hyde (1965) p. 24.〕 and, on deciding that he was unlikely to be a good draper, his father allowed him to leave the business in 1904 to become a minister under Charles Bedale. In 1905, Bedale suggested Birkett should go to Cambridge University to study history and theology. Birkett liked the idea, having previously conversed with A. C. Benson, the Master of Magdalene College, and applied to Emmanuel College, Cambridge. The college offered him a place, with the condition that he would have to pass an entrance examination and complete the responsions to be accepted into the university as a whole. He spent three months learning Latin and Greek and was accepted into the university in October 1907.〔Hyde (1965) p. 30.〕 At Cambridge, Birkett preached on the local Methodist circuit and at The Leys School. He was also active in sport, playing rugby, football and golf.〔Hyde (1965) p. 36.〕 He first spoke at the Cambridge Union Society in his second term at Cambridge on the motion of "this House would welcome the Disestablishment of the Church of England", and the ''Cambridge Review'' reported that it was "a most interesting speech".〔Hyde (1965) p. 35.〕 In his second year, he was elected to the Emmanuel Debating Society Committee and spoke many times at the Union on subjects including Home Rule for Ireland, cruelty to animals and secular education.〔Hyde (1965) p. 39.〕 He befriended Arnold McNair, the Secretary of the Union, and McNair agreed to put Birkett's name on the electoral papers for election to the Union Committee. Birkett failed to get in, but on running again in 1910 was elected Secretary of the Union by a margin of only six votes.〔Hyde (1965) p. 46.〕 He became Vice-President the following term, and President the term after that.〔 While Birkett was President, the ''Cambridge Review'' reported that there was "no speaker more sure of pleasing the house",〔Chandos (1963) p. 25.〕 and the speech he gave when Theodore Roosevelt visited Cambridge was well received by both Roosevelt and the university as a whole.〔 He gained a Second Class in the first History Tripos in 1909, and won the English Essay Prize with an essay on political satire in English poetry. He won the same prize again in 1910,〔Hyde (1965) p. 42.〕 and that year gained first-class honours in his Theological Special Examination.〔Hyde (1965) p. 48.〕 By this point, he was having doubts about his future as a minister and consulted with the university Law Reader as to the possibility of a career as a barrister.〔Hyde (1965) p. 49.〕 On the Reader's advice, Birkett took the second Law Tripos in 1911, passing with second-class honours.〔 Birkett interviewed with the editors of ''The Guardian'' and ''The Observer'' in his search for a job to sustain him while he took the bar exam. He took a job as personal secretary to George Cadbury Junior, with a wage of £200 a year, which he planned to hold until he qualified as a barrister.〔Chandos (1963) p. 26.〕〔Hyde (1965) p. 57.〕 After only a month of working for Cadbury, his salary was raised to £500, and he was offered a permanent position.〔 While there, he continued his political work and spoke on behalf of the Liberal Party, cementing his reputation as an effective speaker by, on one occasion, holding the attention of more than a thousand people for an hour.〔Hyde (1965) p. 63.〕 He took the first part of the Bar Examination in 1912, but failed the paper on real property; he passed it on his second attempt, and was called to the Bar at the Inner Temple on 4 June 1913.〔 While working for Cadbury, Birkett befriended Ruth "Billy" Nilsson, and after he had proposed to her several times, she agreed to marry him. Nilsson gave up her position at Bourneville to move to London and they were married on 25 August 1920.〔〔 They had two children, a daughter Linnea Birkett on 27 June 1923, and a son Michael Birkett on 22 October 1929.〔 A keen golfer, he was a member of the Harewood Downs Golf Club, near Amersham, Buckinghamshire.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The Course )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Norman Birkett, 1st Baron Birkett」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|