David Maxwell Fyfe, 1st Earl of Kilmuir
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 an industrious and precocious 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.
The Right Honourable The Earl of Kilmuir GCVO PC | |
|---|---|
Nuremberg sketch by Laura Knight (1946) | |
| Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain | |
| In office 18 October 1954 – 13 July 1962 | |
| Prime Minister |
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| Preceded by | The Lord 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 | Sir 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 | Sir Walter Monckton |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 29 May 1900 Edinburgh, Scotland, UK |
| Died | 27 January 1967 (aged 66) Withyham, Sussex, England, UK |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouse | Sylvia Harrison (m. 1925) |
| Children | 3 |
| Alma mater | Balliol College, Oxford |
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 he led a crackdown against homosexuals in the UK in the 1950s, 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.