LORD HEWART DEAD

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 106, 6 May 1943, Page 5

LORD HEWART DEAD

Former Chief Justice Of England WIPE HAILS PROM WANGANUI LONDON, May 5. The death has occurred of Viscount Hewart, who was Lord Chief Justice of England from 1922 to 1940.

Viscount Gordon. Hewart, who was born in Bury, Lancashire, in 1870, had a link- .;, with New Zealand, for his second wife," whom he married in December, 1934, was formerly Miss Jean Stewart, daughter of ... . Mr. James Reid Stewart, of WangamuV . His first wife died in 1933. Educated at'/." Manchester Grammar School and at'- r Oxford, he became a K.C. in 1912. In 1916;.-. s he was appointed Solicitor-General in - Lloyd George's Coalition Government,. . . and was knighted. He became Lord Chief - Justice in 1922, and was created Baron Hewart of Bury. The title of Viscount c 3 was conferred in 1940. • ■•-..'- Lord Hewart never regarded the office, .'_ -'- of Lord Chief Justice as one which pre'-' vented its holder from associating him- ' self with party politics. He was strongly i? against what he called "the restless en-2>{ j croachment of the arrogant pretensions of -,-• bureaucracy." Excitement was caused in;,",*, the House of Lords In 1934, when he made'''-' a strong attack on the Supreme Court oo (Amendment) Bill. He referred to it as-; \ "disgraceful," and said that if its "odious features" ■were not removed he would „ adjburn his Court every day during the '_, " Committee stage of the bill in order to attend the House "to fight the obnoxiousfeatures." He complained that he, Lord Chief Justice, had not been consulted about the measure, which, he said, empowered the Government Whig*. £o ~. , decide the composition of the' r2.: ,' Bench. Other accusations were also fcr.de, ' • and Lord Sankey, the Lord Chan* -lor,-*;' Lord Hanworth, Master of the Rolls, and. -y, Lord Hailsham made angry rejoinders, z , : _ but eventually there was a complete happy reconciliation. *'""ir