Gordon Hewart, 1st Viscount Hewart

The Right Honourable The Viscount Hewart PC, KC
7th Lord Chief Justice of England
In office 8 March 1922 – 12 October 1940
Monarch	George V
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 (aged 73) Totteridge, Hertfordshire, England
Political party	Liberal
Alma mater	University College, Oxford
Occupation	Politician, judge

Gordon Hewart, 1st Viscount Hewart, PC, KC (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 as Lord Chief Justice, by John St Helier Lander.

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. He was appointed Solicitor General in 1906, 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 entered the Cabinet in 1921, and was Lord Chief Justice of England from 8 March 1922 to 12 October 1940. He was elevated to the peerage as Baron Hewart, of Bury, in the county of Lancaster in 1922 to allow him to sit in the House of Lords as Lord Chief Justice. Upon his retirement he was created Viscount Hewart.

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.^[1] 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"^[2] 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 was not supported by the weight of 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."

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.^[3] When he died in Totteridge, on 5 May 1943, his titles were inherited by his son, Hugh Hewart, 2nd Viscount Hewart.

See also

• Rex v Sussex Justices, ex parte McCarthy
• Rex v Wallace

Notes

Further reading:
R. Jackson, The chief: the biography of Gordon Hewart, lord chief justice of England, 1922–40 (1959)
R. F. V. Heuston, Lives of the lord chancellors, 1885–1940 (1964)
R. Stevens, The independence of the judiciary: the view from the lord chancellor's office (1993)
R. Stevens, ‘Hewart, Gordon, first Viscount Hewart (1870–1943)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004)

References

1. Lord Hewart, The New Despotism (London: Ernest Benn Limited, 1929), p. 17.
2. The Killing of Julia Wallace, by Jonathan Goodman (Headline, London, 1987), p.251
3. http://thepeerage.com/p23483.htm

• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages

External links

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