Sir Gerald Berkeley Hurst QC (4 December 1877 – 27 October 1957) was a British Conservative Party politician. Gerald Berkeley Hertz was born in Bradford to Fanny Mary and William Martin Hertz, a wool merchant. His Jewish grandparents on both sides came from

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

in the mid-nineteenth century. He was educated at

Bradford Grammar School Bradford Grammar School (BGS) is a co-educational independent day school located in Frizinghall, Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. Entrance is by examination, except for the sixth form, where admission is based on GCSE results. The school ...

and

Lincoln College, Oxford Lincoln College (formally, The College of the Blessed Mary and All Saints, Lincoln) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford, situated on Turl Street in central Oxford. Lincoln was founded in 1427 by Richard Fleming, t ...

. Hertz changed the spelling of his surname to Hurst in 1916. He served in the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gur ...

as a lieutenant during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

and was stationed in the Middle East and France. In 1905 he married Margaret Alice, one of the daughters of Alfred Hopkinson, Vice-Chancellor of

Manchester University , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Unive ...

and a Member of Parliament. Their only son was killed in Libya in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. He was the

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...

(MP) for Manchester Moss Side from 1918 to 1923 and from 1924 to 1935. He was a keen supporter of

Imperial Preference Imperial Preference was a system of mutual tariff reduction enacted throughout the British Empire following the Ottawa Conference of 1932. As Commonwealth Preference, the proposal was later revived in regard to the members of the Commonwealth of N ...

. Hurst was knighted in 1929. In 1938, he was appointed to the county court for

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extens ...

and West Kent. Hurst stepped down from the county judgeship in 1952. From 1947 to 1955, he served as Commissioner of Divorce Cases. His younger brother was Sir

Arthur Frederick Hurst Sir Arthur Frederick Hurst, aka Arthur Frederick Hertz FRCP (23 July 1879 – 17 August 1944) was a British physician, and a cofounder of the British Society of Gastroenterology. The society's annual lecture is named for him. Biography Aur ...

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hurst, Gerald Berkeley 1877 births 1957 deaths 20th-century King's Counsel UK MPs 1918–1922 UK MPs 1924–1929 UK MPs 1929–1931 UK MPs 1931–1935 Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies British Army officers British Army personnel of World War I Alumni of Lincoln College, Oxford UK MPs 1922–1923 English people of German-Jewish descent People educated at Bradford Grammar School Jewish British politicians