Edwin Samuel, 2nd Viscount Samuel

Hadassa and Edwin Samuel in a family picture with Herbert Samuel

Edwin Herbert Samuel, 2nd Viscount Samuel CMG (Hebrew: אדווין הרברט סמואל; 11 September 1898 14 November 1978), was the son of Beatrice Franklin and Herbert Samuel, and the father of Professor David Samuel and Dan Judah Samuel, 4th Viscount Samuel. He served in the Jewish Legion.[1] He also served as the last Mandate-era Director of the Palestine Broadcasting Service.

He was educated at Westminster School and Balliol College, Oxford. In the spring of 1917 he joined the Royal Artillery and was posted to the Egyptian Expeditionary Force. After the First World War he joined the Mandatory Government in Palestine.[2]

As a Viscount, he served as a peer in the House of Lords. There, one of his significant acts was to have the law that forbade marriage between a woman and her brother-in-law repealed. His explicit intent was to allow a man to fulfill his responsibility under the biblical Judaic law of Levirate marriage. That Judaic Levirate law stated that when a woman's husband dies, it was the explicit responsibility of her brother-in-law to marry her and take care of her.

Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Herbert Samuel
Viscount Samuel
19631978
Succeeded by
David Samuel

References

  1. Isseroff, Ami (2005). "Zionism and Israel - Encyclopedic Dictionary: Jewish Legion (Hagdud Ha'ivri, Gdud Ha'ivri) Definition". The Encyclopedia and Dictionary of Zionism and Israel. Retrieved 1 September 2011.
  2. Edwin Samuel, A Lifetime in Jerusalem, 1970, Jacket blurb, and p.28

Further reading


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