William Norman Birkett, Kt, PC, QC was a British barrister, judge, politician and preacher. He was a Methodist preacher and a draper before attending Emmanuel College, Cambridge in 1907, to study theology, history and law. Upon graduating in 1910 he worked as a secretary and was called to the Bar in 1913. A member of the Liberal Party, he sat in Parliament for Nottingham East twice, first in 1923 and again in 1929. In 1945 he served as the alternate British judge at the Nuremberg trials, and he was made a Privy Counsellor in 1947. From 1958 he served in the House of Lords, and his speech against a private bill in 1962 saw it defeated by 70 votes to 36.
About Norman Birkett, 1st Baron Birkett in brief
William Norman Birkett, Kt, PC, QC was a British barrister, judge, politician and preacher. He was a Methodist preacher and a draper before attending Emmanuel College, Cambridge in 1907, to study theology, history and law. Upon graduating in 1910 he worked as a secretary and was called to the Bar in 1913. A member of the Liberal Party, he sat in Parliament for Nottingham East twice, first in 1923 and again in 1929. In 1945 he served as the alternate British judge at the Nuremberg trials, and he was made a Privy Counsellor in 1947. From 1958 he served in the House of Lords, and his speech against a private bill in 1962 saw it defeated by 70 votes to 36, two days before he died on 10 February 1962. Five of his cases were dramatised for radio by Caroline and David Stafford and broadcast on BBC Radio 4’s Afternoon Play series, one on 1 June 2010 starring David Haig asBirkett and four in January 2012 starring Neil Dudgeon as BirKett. In his second term at Cambridge, he was elected to the Debating Society and spoke many times at the Union Union on subjects including Home Rule for Ireland, cruelty to animals and secular education. He became Vice-President and President of the Union the term after that. While President, the Cambridge Review reported that there was no speaker more pleasing to the house of Commons than him. He died in 1962 and was buried at St Paul’s Cathedral, London, where he had served as a councillor for more than 30 years.
He is buried in the family grave, next to his wife Agnes, who died in 1884 of tuberculosis. He left school in 1898, starting work as an apprentice in one of the draper’s shops owned by his father and beginning to preach. In 1904 he became a minister under Charles Bedale, and left the business in 1904 to become a minister. In 1905, Bedale suggested that Birket should go to Cambridge University to study history and theology. He spent three months learning Latin and Greek and was accepted into the university in October 1907. Although intelligent, he spent as much time on practical jokes as he did on his studies. In 1910 he waselected to the Union Society, and in 1910 was elected Secretary of a Union Committee by a margin of only six votes. During his tenure in the Court of Appeal he oversaw some of the most significant cases of the era, particularly in contract law, despite his avowed dislike of judicial work. He retired in 1950 but retired in 1956 when he had serving for long enough to draw a pension. In the 1930s he was described as “the Lord Chancellor that never was” and described as the’most interesting speaker’ in the University of Cambridge. In 1940 he was appointed a King’s Counsel in 1924. He acted as counsel in a number of famous cases including the second of the Brighton trunk murders. In 1941 he was offered the position of High Court of Justice and accepted, joining the King’s Bench Division.
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