Hartley William Shawcross, Baron Shawcross, GBE, PC, KC (4 February 1902 – 10 July 2003), was a British barrister and politician and the lead British prosecutor at the Nuremberg War Crimes tribunal. The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British Order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council is a body of advisors to the British Sovereign. Queen's Counsel ( postnominal QC) &ndash known as King's Counsel ( KC) during the reign of a male sovereign &ndash are Events 211 - Roman Emperor Septimius Severus dies leaving the Roman Empire in the hands of his two quarrelsome sons Year 1902 ( MCMII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting Events 48 BC - Battle of Dyrrhachium, Julius Caesar barely avoids a catastrophic defeat to Pompey in Macedonia. Year 2003 ( MMIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located A barrister is a Lawyer found in many Common law Jurisdictions that employ a split profession (as opposed to a Fused profession) in relation A politician (from Greek " Polis " is an individual who is involved in influencing public decision making through the influence of Politics or a person The Nuremberg Trials were a series of trials most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political military and economic leadership of Nazi Germany after
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Early life
Hartley William Shawcross was born to John and Hilda Shawcross in Germany, whilst his father was teaching English at Giessen University. He was educated at Dulwich College, the London School of Economics and University of Geneva and sat for the Bar at Gray's Inn, where he won first-class honours. Dulwich College is an independent selective fee-paying public school for boys in Dulwich, a suburb of south-east London United Kingdom The London School of Economics and Political Science, more commonly referred to as The London School of Economics or LSE, is a specialist college of the The University of Geneva (Université de Genève is a university in Geneva, Switzerland. The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court around the Royal Courts He was the youngest man ever to be made King's Counsel. Queen's Counsel ( postnominal QC) &ndash known as King's Counsel ( KC) during the reign of a male sovereign &ndash are
Career
He joined Labour at a young age, and served as Member of Parliament for St Helens from 1945 to 1958, holding the position of Attorney-General from 1945 to 1951. The Labour Party is a Political party in the United Kingdom. Founded at the start of the 20th century it has been since the 1920s the principal party of the A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters to a Parliament. St Helens was a county constituency in the county of Lancashire of the House of Commons for the Parliament of the United Kingdom. In most Common law jurisdictions the Attorney General, or Attorney-General, is the main legal advisor to the government and in some jurisdictions may in addition It was in 1946 when debating the repeal of anti-Union laws in the House of Commons that Shawcross made the "We are the masters at the moment" comment (widely misquoted as "We are the masters now") that came to haunt him. A trade union or labour union is an organization of workers who have banded together to achieve common goals in key areas such as wages hours and working conditions forming The House of Commons' is the Lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords
As Attorney-General, he prosecuted William Joyce ("Lord Haw-Haw") and John Amery for treason and also prosecuted Klaus Fuchs and Alan Nunn May, for giving atomic secrets to the Soviet Union and John George Haigh (the acid bath murderer) for murder. In most Common law jurisdictions the Attorney General, or Attorney-General, is the main legal advisor to the government and in some jurisdictions may in addition William Joyce ( 24 April 1906 – 3 January 1946) the man generally associated with the nickname Lord Haw-Haw John Amery ( 14 March, 1912 Chelsea, London &ndash 19 December, 1945) was an English Fascist Klaus Emil Julius Fuchs ( December 29, 1911 &ndash January 28, 1988) was a German -born theoretical physicist and Alan Nunn May ( 2 May 1911 – 12 January 2003) was a British physicist and a confessed and convicted Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 John George Haigh ( July 24, 1909 — August 10, 1949) nicknamed the "Acid Bath Murderer" was an English Serial killer He was knighted in 1945 and named Chief Prosecutor for the United Kingdom at Nuremberg. From 1945 to 1949, he was Britain's principal United Nations delegate, though he was recalled in 1948 to lead for the government's interest at the Lynskey tribunal. The Lynskey tribunal (1948 was a Tribunal of inquiry into allegations of corruption among British Government ministers and Civil servants The In 1951, he briefly served as President of the Board of Trade until the Labour government's defeat in the election of that year. The Secretary of State for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (formerly the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry before the June 28, 2007 He ended his law career the same year, and was expected to become a Tory earning him the nickname "Sir Shortly Floorcross". Instead though he resigned from Parliament in 1958, saying he was tired of party politics. He was made one of Britain's first life peers on February 14, 1959 as Baron Shawcross,[1] of Friston in the County of Sussex, and sat in the House of Lords as a cross-bencher. Events 842 - Charles the Bald and Louis the German swear the Oaths of Strasbourg in the French and German The year 1959 ( MCMLIX) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. East Dean and Friston is a Civil parish in the Wealden District of East Sussex, England. The House of Lords is the second house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is also commonly referred to as "the Lords" In certain legislative assemblies, especially those which are based on the Westminster system, a crossbencher is a member of the assembly who is a member of neither Because of this change of loyalties away from Labour, his many business interests and, much later, his support for the Social Democratic Party (UK), the 'Floorcross' nickname in the end rang true. This is about the UK Social Democratic Party which existed between 1981 and 1988
In 1957, he was among a group of eminent British lawyers who founded JUSTICE, the human rights and law reform organisation and he became its first chairman - a position he held until 1972. JUSTICE is a Human rights and law reform organisation based in the United Kingdom.
He was also instrumental in the foundation of the University of Sussex and served as chancellor of the university from 1965 to 1985. The University of Sussex is a British Campus university which is situated next to the East Sussex village of Falmer, and is from Brighton
Family
Lord Shawcross was married three times. His first wife Alberta Rosita Shyvers (m. May 24, 1924) suffered from multiple sclerosis and committed suicide on December 30, 1943. Multiple sclerosis (abbreviated MS also known as disseminated sclerosis or encephalomyelitis disseminata) is an autoimmune condition in which the His second wife Joan Winifred Mather (m. September 21, 1944) died in a riding accident on the Sussex Downs on January 26, 1974. At the age of 95 he married Mrs. Susanne Monique Huiskamp on April 18, 1997 in Gibraltar. Gibraltar (dʒɨˈbrɒltər is a British overseas territory located near the southernmost tip of the Iberian Peninsula overlooking the Strait of Gibraltar
He had two sons, the author and historian William Shawcross, Hume Shawcross, and a daughter, Dr Joanna Shawcross, by his second wife. An author is defined both as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created See also History An historian is an individual who studies and writes about History, and is regarded as an Authority on it William Shawcross (born 28 May, 1946, Sussex) is a British writer broadcaster and commentator He died at home at Cowbeech, East Sussex at the age of 101, the last surviving member of Clement Attlee's government. Clement Richard Attlee 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, PC ( 3 January 1883 &ndash 8 October 1967
Shawcross and the Nuremberg Trials
Shawcross's advocacy before the Nuremberg Trial was passionate. His most famous line was:
- "There comes a point when a man must refuse to answer to his leader if he is also to answer to his own conscience. "
He avoided the crusading style of American, Russian and French prosecutors. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Shawcross's opening speech, which lasted two days, sought to undermine any belief that the Nuremberg Trials were victor's justice (an exacted vengeance against defeated foes). JUSTICE is a Human rights and law reform organisation based in the United Kingdom. Instead, he focused on the rule of law and he demonstrated that the laws that the defendants had broken, expressed in international treaties and agreements, were those to which pre-war Germany had been a party. The rule of law, in its most basic form is the principle that no one is above the law Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. In his closing speech, he ridiculed any notion that any of the defendants could have remained ignorant of the thousands of Germans exterminated because they were old or mentally ill. He used the same argument for the millions of other people "annihilated in the gas chambers or by shooting" and he maintained that each of the 22 defendants was a party to "common murder in its most ruthless forms".
Thus Shawcross' advocacy was instrumental in obtaining convictions against the remaining Nazi leadership, on grounds which were perceived as fair and lawful. Nazism, which was a short name for National Socialism (Nationalsozialismus refers primarily to the Ideology and practices of the National Socialist German
Controversy
Bodkin Adams case
During the committal hearing for the suspected serial killer John Bodkin Adams in February 1957, Shawcross was seen dining with the defendant's lover, Roland Gwynne, at the White Hart Hotel in Lewes[2]. A serial killer is a person who Murders usually three or more people with a "cooling off" period between each murder and whose motivation for killing is largely based John Bodkin Adams ( January 21, 1899 &ndash July 4, 1983) was an Irish-born British General practitioner, convicted Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Roland Vaughan Gwynne, DSO, DL, JP ( 16 May 1882 - 15 November 1971) was Mayor of Lewes (ˈluːɨs Lewis) is the County town of East Sussex, England and gives its name to the Local government district in which it They were accompanied by Lord Chief Justice Goddard, who had already selected Patrick Devlin as judge for Adams' trial and then later phoned Devlin while the jury was considering its verdict, to recommend that Adams was given bail before a second trial for another count of murder. Rayner Goddard Baron Goddard ( April 10, 1877 &ndash May 29, 1971) was Lord Chief Justice of England Patrick Devlin may refer to Pat Devlin (American football - American football quarterback Penn State University Patrick Devlin Baron Devlin A jury a sworn body of persons convened to render a rational, impartial Verdict (a finding of fact on a question officially submitted to them While driving home afterwards, Gwynne crashed his car. He hadn't been drinking. Adams was acquitted but was suspected by police of killing 163 of his patients. In Criminal law, an acquittal is a verdict of not guilty, or some similar end of the proceeding that terminates it with prejudice without a verdict
Later, on 10 May 1957, Goddard heard a contempt of court case against Newsweek and W. H. Smith. Contempt of court is a court ruling which in the context of a court trial or hearing deems an individual as having been disrespectful of the court its process and its invested Newsweek is an American weekly Newsmagazine published in New York City. This article is about the retail chain for people of that name see William Henry Smith. On April 1 during Adams' trial, they had respectively published and distributed an issue of the magazine containing two paragraphs of material "highly prejudicial to the accused", saying that Adams' victim count could be "as high as 400". The word prejudice refers to prejudgment making a decision before becoming aware of the relevant facts of a case or event Each company was fined £50. Goddard made no mention of his conflict of interest[2]. A conflict of interest is a situation in which someone in a position of trust such as a Lawyer, Insurance adjuster, a Politician, executive or director
Other cases
During a rent tribunal case he referred to certain workers as "six black niggers". [3]
References
- ^ Obituary: Lord Shawcross | Independent, The (London) | Find Articles at BNET.com
- ^ a b Cullen, Pamela V. , "A Stranger in Blood: The Case Files on Dr John Bodkin Adams", London, Elliott & Thompson, 2006, ISBN 1-904027-19-9, P. 633
- ^ Obituary: Lord Shawcross | Independent, The (London) | Find Articles at BNET.com
Bibliography
- Shawcross, H. (1995). Life Sentence. London: Constable. ISBN 0094749809.
External links
Obituary, The Independent, July 11, 2003 by James Morton
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by William Albert Robinson |
Member of Parliament for St Helens 1945–1958 |
Succeeded by Leslie Spriggs |
| Legal offices | ||
| Preceded by David Maxwell Fyfe |
Attorney General for England and Wales 1945–1951 |
Succeeded by Sir Frank Soskice |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Harold Wilson |
President of the Board of Trade 1951 |
Succeeded by Peter Thorneycroft |
| Honorary titles | ||
| Preceded by Charles Waterhouse |
Steward of the Manor of Northstead April 1 1958–November 24 1958 |
Succeeded by Ian Douglas Harvey |
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