David Maxwell Fyfe, 1st Earl of Kilmuir
The Earl of Kilmuir | |
|---|---|
Nuremberg sketch by Laura Knight (1946) | |
| Lord Chancellor | |
| In office 18 October 1954 – 13 July 1962 | |
| Monarch | Elizabeth II |
| Prime Minister | |
| Preceded by | The Viscount Simonds |
| Succeeded by | The Lord Dilhorne |
| Home Secretary | |
| In office 27 October 1951 – 19 October 1954 | |
| Prime Minister | Winston Churchill |
| Preceded by | James Chuter Ede |
| Succeeded by | Gwilym Lloyd George |
| Attorney-General for England | |
| In office 25 May 1945 – 26 July 1945 | |
| Prime Minister | Winston Churchill |
| Preceded by | Sir Donald Somervell |
| Succeeded by | Hartley Shawcross |
| Solicitor-General for England | |
| In office 4 March 1942 – 25 May 1945 | |
| Prime Minister | Winston Churchill |
| Preceded by | Sir William Jowitt |
| Succeeded by | Walter Monckton |
| Personal details | |
| Born | David Patrick Maxwell Fyfe 29 May 1900 Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Died | 27 January 1967 (aged 66) Withyham, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouse | Sylvia Harrison (m. 1925) |
| Children | 3 |
| Alma mater | Balliol College, Oxford |
David Patrick Maxwell Fyfe, 1st Earl of Kilmuir, GCVO, PC (29 May 1900 – 27 January 1967), known as Sir David Maxwell Fyfe from 1942 to 1954 and as Viscount Kilmuir from 1954 to 1962, was a British Conservative politician, lawyer and judge who combined a legal career with political ambitions that took him to the offices of Solicitor General, Attorney General, Home Secretary and Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain.
One of the prosecuting counsels at the Nuremberg Trials, he subsequently played a role in drafting the European Convention on Human Rights. As Home Secretary from 1951 to 1954 he greatly increased the number of prosecutions of homosexuals and declined to commute Derek Bentley's death sentence for the murder of a police officer. His political ambitions were ultimately dashed in Harold Macmillan's cabinet reshuffle of July 1962.