Sir John Anthony Hawke (7 June 1869 – 30 October 1941), known as Anthony Hawke and later as Mr Justice Hawke, was a Unionist politician in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

who served in the 1920s as Member of Parliament (MP) for St Ives in

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

, before becoming a High Court judge.

Life

Educated at Merchant Taylors' School and

St John's College, Oxford St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded as a men's college in 1555, it has been coeducational since 1979.Communication from Michael Riordan, college archivist Its foun ...

(where he was a scholar and gained first class Honours in Law), Hawke was

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

from the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court entitled to Call to the bar, call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple (with whi ...

in 1892. He joined the Western Circuit in 1893 and went on to become Attorney-General to the

Prince of Wales Prince of Wales (, ; ) is a title traditionally given to the male heir apparent to the History of the English monarchy, English, and later, the British throne. The title originated with the Welsh rulers of Kingdom of Gwynedd, Gwynedd who, from ...

(1923–1928) and Recorder of Plymouth.'HAWKE, Sir (John) Anthony' in ''

Who Was Who ''Who's Who'' is a reference work. It has been published annually in the form of a hardback book since 1849, and has been published online since 1999. It has also been published on CD-ROM. It lists, and gives information on, people from around ...

'', A. & C. Black, 1920–2008
online edition
(subscription required) by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 2007, accessed 14 December 2011 He was elected to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, 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 ...

at his first attempt, at the 1922 general election, when he defeated the sitting

National Liberal National liberalism is a variant of liberalism, combining liberal policies and issues with elements of nationalism. Historically, national liberalism has also been used in the same meaning as conservative liberalism (right-liberalism). A serie ...

Member, Sir Clifford Cory. Cory regained the seat at the 1923 general election but was again unseated by Hawke at the 1924 election. Hawke resigned from

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

in 1928, when he was appointed to the

High Court of Justice The High Court of Justice in London, known properly as His Majesty's High Court of Justice in England, together with the Court of Appeal (England and Wales), Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, are the Courts of England and Wales, Senior Cour ...

. He was knighted at the same time. He died on circuit in 1941. He was a member of the Carlton, Garrick, Devon and Exeter, and Royal Western Yacht clubs. He married Winifred Edith Laura (née Stevens) and their son Sir Edward Anthony Hawke was also a judge and the

Common Serjeant of London The Common Serjeant of London (full title The Serjeant-at-Law in the Common Hall) is an ancient British legal office, first recorded in 1291, and is the second most senior permanent judge of the Central Criminal Court after the Recorder of Lon ...

and

Recorder of London The recorder of London is an ancient legal office in the City of London. The recorder of London is the senior circuit judge at the Central Criminal Court (the Old Bailey), hearing trials of criminal offences. The recorder is appointed by the Cr ...

.Fred E. Pritchard, ‘Hawke, Sir (Edward) Anthony (1895–1964)’, rev. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200
accessed 9 Dec 2016
/ref>

Notable cases

Court of Appeal

Hawke sat with

Lord Chief Justice The Lord or Lady Chief Justice of England and Wales is the head of the judiciary of England and Wales and the president of the courts of England and Wales. Until 2005 the lord chief justice was the second-most senior judge of the English a ...

Hewart and Mr Justice Branson in the Court of Criminal Appeal on 18 and 19 May 1931 to hear an appeal against a conviction for murder in R. v. Wallace. For the first time ever, the Court overturned a conviction in a capital case on the ground that the verdict "can not be supported having regard to the evidence".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hawke, Anthony 1869 births 1941 deaths Alumni of St John's College, Oxford Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for St Ives UK MPs 1922–1923 UK MPs 1924–1929 Queen's Bench Division judges Knights Bachelor Members of the Middle Temple People educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood