Sir Arthur Strettell Comyns Carr (19 September 1882 – 20 April 1965) was a British

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

politician and lawyer.

Family and education

Comyns Carr was the son of J. Comyns Carr, a dramatist and art critic. His mother,

Alice Comyns Carr Alice Vansittart Comyns Carr (née Strettell; 1850–1927), was a British costume designer whose work is associated with the Aesthetic dress movement. Family Alice Vansittart Strettell (referred to in succeeding sections as "Carr") was a daug ...

(1850–1927), was a costume designer for the theatre. He was born in

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and educated at

Winchester College Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of ...

and

Trinity College, Oxford (That which you wish to be secret, tell to nobody) , named_for = The Holy Trinity , established = , sister_college = Churchill College, Cambridge , president = Dame Hilary Boulding , location = Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BH , coordinates ...

. In 1907, he married Cicely Raikes Bromage, the daughter of a

clergyman Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...

. They had three sons including Richard Strettell Comyns Carr, the second husband of the avant garde English novelist Barbara Comyns Carr.

Roy Douglas Richard Roy Douglas (12 December 1907 – 23 March 2015) was an English composer, pianist and arranger. He worked as musical assistant to Ralph Vaughan Williams, William Walton, and Richard Addinsell, made well-known orchestrations of works su ...

, "Sir Arthur Comyns Carr", Brack et al. (eds.) ''Dictionary of Liberal Biography''; Politico’s 1998, pp. 84-85

Career

In 1908, Comyns Carr was called to the Bar at

Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and W ...

. He became a King's Counsel in 1924, a

Bencher A bencher or Master of the Bench is a senior member of an Inn of Court in England and Wales or the Inns of Court in Northern Ireland, or the Honorable Society of King's Inns in Ireland. Benchers hold office for life once elected. A bencher ca ...

of the Inn in 1938, and, eventually, Treasurer in 1951. Comyns Carr's reputation as a barrister was confirmed in a libel action brought by Horatio Bottomley against an associate named Reuben Bigland. Carr's cross-examination of Bottomley and another key witness destroyed his case and was instrumental in Bottomley's eventual imprisonment on charges of fraud and his expulsion from the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

. Comyns Carr later began to specialize in the law relating to

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and as a result of appearing in landmark rating appeals he was engaged as counsel to government departments. He also became an expert in the subject of

national insurance National Insurance (NI) is a fundamental component of the welfare state in the United Kingdom. It acts as a form of social security, since payment of NI contributions establishes entitlement to certain state benefits for workers and their fami ...

. Much later Comyns Carr was a prosecutor in trials of German and Japanese war criminals, including serving as senior prosecutor at the trial of Erich von Manstein in 1949, and he was knighted for this work in 1949.

War service

At the outbreak of the First World War Comyns Carr he joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and later served on the staff at the Ministry of Munitions. He also acted as an adviser to the Ministry of Reconstruction. In the last months of the war he joined the army as a private soldier but did not serve overseas.

Politics

Comyns Carr's expertise in National Insurance led him to co-author a book on the subject in 1912 to which

David Lloyd George David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. He was a Liberal Party politician from Wales, known for leading the United Kingdom during ...

wrote the preface. He was a member of the Liberal land inquiry committee of 1912 and also sat on the land acquisition committee in 1917. His ambition to become a Liberal

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(MP) led Comyns Carr to stand for Parliament on eleven occasions in all. He first stood for election in 1918 in St Pancras South West against a

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opponent who had received

the Coalition Coupon The Coalition Coupon was a letter sent to parliamentary candidates at the 1918 United Kingdom general election, endorsing them as official representatives of the Coalition Government. The 1918 election took place in the heady atmosphere of victory ...

and fought the same seat again in 1922. At the 1923 general election Comyns Carr had his only success, becoming Liberal MP for Islington East turning a Unionist majority of nearly 4,000 into a Liberal majority of 1,632 but he lost the seat at the general election of 1924 like many other Liberals swept away as British politics seemed to be reverting to its traditional two party model. In 1928, he was Liberal candidate at the

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

for the constituency of Ilford and fought the seat again in the general election of the following year. In 1930, Comyns Carr published an influential and controversial booklet, ''Escape from the Dole'', which gained him significant public attention. In it he queried the policy of spending large sums of money supporting the unemployed when the government could be investing in providing work for them. He then challenged

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...

in his constituency at Epping in the 1931 general election and in 1935 he suffered his heaviest defeat ever at

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. In June 1936, he was elected to serve on the Liberal Party Council. He stood again in

1945 1945 marked the end of World War II and the fall of Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan. It is also the only year in which Nuclear weapon, nuclear weapons Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, have been used in combat. Events Below, ...

when he lost at Shrewsbury. In October 1945, he was a candidate at another by-election, this time in the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...

Other public appointments

In later life Comyns Carr served as chairman of the Foreign Compensation Commission (1950–1958) and was a president of the Institute of Industrial Administration and of the Association of Approved Societies. He was also President of the Liberal Party in 1958–59. Comyns-Carr was also one of the British prosecutors at the

Tokyo Trials The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), also known as the Tokyo Trial or the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, was a military trial convened on April 29, 1946 to try leaders of the Empire of Japan for crimes against peace, conv ...

Death

He died in Hampstead on 20 April 1965, aged 82. A memorial service was held for him in the chapel of Gray's Inn on 24 May 1965.''The Times'', 25 May 1965.

Ancestry

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Comyns Carr, Arthur 1882 births 1965 deaths Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1923–1924 British Army personnel of World War I Presidents of the Liberal Party (UK) Members of Gray's Inn Alumni of Trinity College, Oxford People educated at Winchester College Prosecutors of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East Knights Bachelor 20th-century King's Counsel