Donald Somervell, Baron Somervell of Harrow
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Donald Bradley Somervell, Baron Somervell of Harrow (24 August 1889 – 18 November 1960) was a barrister and Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom.
The son of the Master and Bursar of Harrow School, Somervell was educated there before reading chemistry at Oxford. He then joined the Inner Temple but his legal training was interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War. In 1916 he was called to the Bar and practiced in the chambers of William Jowitt, specialising in commercial law matters arising out of the Treaty of Versailles.
In 1929 he entered politics. Although a Liberal by inclination, the decline of that party and his admiration for the then-Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin led him to instead join the Conservative Party and he stood unsuccessfully for Crewe in the 1929 general election. He won the seat in the 1931 election and held it for the next fourteen years.
In 1933 he became Solicitor General, followed three years later by a promotion to Attorney General. In this latter post he served for no less than nine years, during which he oversaw crises such as the Abdication Crisis of Edward VIII. In 1945 he was briefly Home Secretary in Winston Churchill's "Caretaker" government. The government lost power and Somervell lost his seat in the 1945 general election and he returned to the law. In 1946 he became a Lord Justice of Appeal. In 1951 Churchill returned to power but passed over Somervell's claims to the Lord Chancellorship. In 1954 Somervell he became a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary and a Law lord he received a life peerage as Baron Somervell of Harrow, of Ewelme in the County of Oxford. He retired in 1960, shortly before his death. His grave can be found in the grounds of Saint Mary's Church in Oxfordshire, opposite that of the writer Jerome K. Jerome.
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by John William Bowen |
Member of Parliament for Crewe 1931–1945 |
Succeeded by Sydney Scholefield Allen |
| Legal offices | ||
| Preceded by Sir Frank Boyd Merriman |
Solicitor General for England and Wales 1933–1936 |
Succeeded by Sir Terence O'Connor |
| Preceded by Sir Thomas Inskip |
Attorney General for England and Wales 1936–1945 |
Succeeded by Sir David Maxwell Fyfe |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Herbert Stanley Morrison |
Home Secretary 1945 |
Succeeded by James Chuter Ede |
