Hardinge Giffard, 1st Earl of Halsbury

The Right Honourable The Earl of Halsbury PC QC
Lord Chancellor
In office 24 June 1885 – 28 January 1886
Monarch	Victoria
Prime Minister	The Marquess of Salisbury
Preceded by	The Earl of Selborne
Succeeded by	The Lord Herschell
In office 3 August 1886 – 11 August 1892
Monarch	Victoria
Prime Minister	The Marquess of Salisbury
Preceded by	The Lord Herschell
Succeeded by	The Lord Herschell
In office 29 June 1895 – 4 December 1905
Monarch	Victoria Edward VII
Prime Minister	The Marquess of Salisbury Arthur Balfour
Preceded by	The Lord Herschell
Succeeded by	The Lord Loreburn
Personal details
Born	3 September 1823 London
Died	11 December 1921 (aged 98)
Nationality	British
Political party	Conservative
Spouse(s)	(1) Caroline Humphreys (d. 1873) (2) Wilhelmina Woodfall (d. 1927)
Alma mater	Merton College, Oxford

Hardinge Stanley Giffard, 1st Earl of Halsbury PC, QC (3 September 1823 – 11 December 1921) was a leading barrister, politician and government minister. He served thrice as Lord Chancellor of Great Britain.

Background and education

Born in London, Halsbury was the third son of Stanley Lees Giffard, editor of the Standard newspaper, by his wife Susanna, daughter of Francis Moran. He was educated at Merton College, Oxford, and was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1850.

Legal career

Halsbury joined the North Wales and Chester circuit. Afterwards he had a large practice at the central criminal court and the Middlesex sessions, and he was for several years junior prosecuting counsel to the Treasury. He was engaged in most of the celebrated trials of his time, including the Overend and Gurney and the Tichborne cases. He became Queen's Counsel in 1865, and a bencher of the Inner Temple.

Political career

Giffard twice contested Cardiff in the Conservative interest, in 1868 and 1874, but he was still without a seat in the House of Commons when he was appointed Solicitor General by Disraeli in 1875 and received the honour of knighthood. He also failed to gain a seat in a by-election in Horsham in 1876. In 1877 he succeeded in obtaining a seat, when he was returned for Launceston, which borough he continued to represent until his elevation to the peerage.

He was then created Baron Halsbury, of Halsbury in the County of Devon, and appointed Lord Chancellor, thus forming a remarkable exception to the rule that no criminal lawyer could ever reach the woolsack. He resumed the position in 1886 and held it until 1892 and again from 1895 to 1905, his tenure of the office, broken only by the brief Liberal ministries of 1886 and 1892–1895, being longer than that of any Lord Chancellor since Lord Eldon. In 1898 he was created Earl of Halsbury and Viscount Tiverton, of Tiverton in the County of Devon.

During the crisis over the Parliament Act 1911, Halsbury was one of the principal leaders of the rebel faction of Tory peers—labelled the "Ditchers"—that resolved on all out opposition to the government's bill whatever happened. At a meeting of Conservative peers on the 21 July of that year, Halsbury shouted out "I will divide even if I am alone". As Halsbury left the meeting a reporter asked him what was going to happen. Halsbury immediately replied: "Government by a Cabinet controlled by rank socialists".^[1] Halsbury was also President of the Royal Society of Literature, Grand Warden of English Freemasons, and High Steward of the University of Oxford.

Halsbury's lasting legacy was the compilation of a complete digest of "Laws of England" (1905–1916), a major reference work published in many volumes and often called simply "Halsbury's". "Halsbury's Laws" was followed by a second multiple-volume reference work in 1929, "Halsbury's Statutes", and later by "Halsbury's Statutory Instruments".

Family

Halsbury married firstly Caroline, daughter of William Corne Humphreys, in 1852. There were no children from this marriage. Caroline died in September 1873. Halsbury married secondly Wilhelmina, daughter of Henry Woodfall, in 1874. He died in December 1921, aged 98, and was succeeded by his only son from his second marriage, Hardinge. The Countess of Halsbury died in December 1927.

Cases

a few of his more famed decisions:

• Salomon v Salomon
• Mogul Steamship Co Ltd v McGregor, Gow & Co [1892] AC 25
• Bray v Ford [1896] AC 44
• Taff Vale Railway Co v Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants [1901] AC 426
• Daimler Co Ltd v Continental Tyre and Rubber Co (Great Britain) Ltd [1916] 2 AC 307

References

1. George Dangerfield, The Strange Death of Liberal England (Serif, 2001), p. 54.

Bibliography

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "^{article name needed}". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Earl of Halsbury

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