Hartley Shawcross

Hartley William Shawcross was born in Giessen, Germany, to British parents, John and Hilda Constance (Asser) Shawcross, while his father was teaching English at Giessen University. He attended Dulwich College, the London School of Economics and the University of Geneva and read for the Bar at Gray's Inn, where he won first-class honours.

He joined the Labour Party at a young age and served as Member of Parliament for St Helens, Lancashire from 1945[1] to 1958, being appointed to be Attorney General in 1945[2] until 1951. It was in 1946 when debating the repeal of laws against trade unions in the House of Commons that Shawcross allegedly said "We are the masters now",[3] a phrase that came to haunt him.

He was knighted in 1945 upon his appointment as Attorney-General[4] and named Chief Prosecutor for the United Kingdom at the Nuremberg Trials.

In October 1974 he poured scorn on a Labour Party pamphlet that recommended the application of "internal democracy" to editorial policy, saying "This means that... there would be some sort of committee consisting at the best of a mixture of van drivers, press operators, electricians and the rest, with no doubt a few journalists, but more probably composed of trade union officials, to deal with editorial policy."[12]

In the 1974 New Year Honours Lord Shawcross was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE).[13]

In 1957, he was among a group of eminent British lawyers who founded JUSTICE, the human rights and law reform organisation and he became its first chairman, a position he held until 1972. He was instrumental in the foundation of the University of Sussex and served as chancellor of the university from 1965-85.

He was the President of the charity Attend[14] (then National Association of Leagues of Hospital Friends) from 1962–72.

Lord Shawcross was married three times. His first wife Alberta Rosita Shyvers (m. 24 May 1924) suffered from multiple sclerosis and committed suicide on 30 December 1943.

His second wife Joan Winifred Mather (m. 21 September 1944) died in a riding accident on the Sussex Downs on 26 January 1974.

His second wife gave birth to two sons, the author and historian William Shawcross and Hume Shawcross, and a daughter, Dr Joanna Shawcross.

At the age of 95 he married Susanne Monique (née Jansen), formerly wife of Gerald B. Huiskamp,[15] on 18 April 1997 in Gibraltar.

He died at home at Cowbeech, East Sussex, at the age of 101. Lady Shawcross died on 2 March 2013.[16]

He is buried in the churchyard at Jevington in Sussex.

Hartley Shawcross Gravestone - Jevington, East Sussex.

From 1947 to 1960 he was the owner of Vanity V, a 12-metre class racing yacht designed by William Fife to the Third International Rule, built in 1936, which he kept at his home in Cornwall.[17] A later skipper of the boat, John Crill, recalls being told[17] that Lord Shawcross, "when the election was due in about 1951, had Vanity V repainted with a vast 'Vote Labour' banner all the way along her topsides".

• Shawcross, H. (1995). Life Sentence. London: Constable. ISBN 978-0-09-474980-1.

• Quotations related to Hartley Shawcross at Wikiquote
• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Hartley Shawcross
• Portraits of Hartley Shawcross at the National Portrait Gallery, London
• Obituary, The Independent, 11 July 2003 by James Morton
• A film clip "Longines Chronoscope with Sir Hartlety [sic] Shawcross" is available at the Internet Archive
• Appearance on Desert Island Discs (7 July 1991)
• Newspaper clippings about Hartley Shawcross in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW