James Campbell, 1st Baron Glenavy
James Henry Mussen Campbell, 1st Baron Glenavy PC (Ire) (4 April 1851 – 22 March 1931) was an Irish lawyer, politician in the British Parliament and later in the Oireachtas of the Irish Free State. He was also Lord Chancellor of Ireland.
The Lord Glenavy | |
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 "The Rt Hon James", caricature by Spy in Vanity Fair, 1909. | |
| Cathaoirleach of Seanad Éireann | |
| In office 1922–1928 | |
| Preceded by | New office |
| Succeeded by | Thomas Westropp Bennett |
| Lord Chancellor of Ireland | |
| In office 1918–1921 | |
| Monarch | George V |
| Preceded by | Sir Ignatius O'Brien |
| Succeeded by | John Ross |
| Lord Chief Justice of Ireland | |
| In office 1917–1918 | |
| Preceded by | Richard Cherry |
| Succeeded by | Thomas Molony |
| Attorney-General for Ireland | |
| In office 1916–1917 | |
| Preceded by | John Gordon |
| Succeeded by | James O'Connor |
| In office 1905–1905 | |
| Preceded by | John Atkinson |
| Succeeded by | Richard Cherry |
| Solicitor-General for Ireland | |
| In office 1903–1905 | |
| Preceded by | George Wright |
| Succeeded by | Redmond Barry |
| MP for Dublin University | |
| In office 1903–1917 | |
| Preceded by | W. E. H. Lecky |
| Succeeded by | Arthur Samuels |
| MP for Dublin St Stephen's Green | |
| In office 1898–1900 | |
| Preceded by | William Kenny |
| Succeeded by | James McCann |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 4 April 1851 Dublin, Ireland |
| Died | 22 March 1931 (aged 79) Dublin, Ireland |
| Alma mater | Trinity College, Dublin |
Barrister and Judge
He was born in Dublin and educated at Dr. Stacpoole's School in Kingstown (now Dún Laoghaire) and Trinity College, Dublin, graduating BA in 1874. After being called to the Irish bar in 1878, Campbell was made an Irish Queen's Counsel in 1892 and six years later was elected Irish Unionist MP for the Dublin seat of St. Stephen's Green. The following year he was called to the English bar, and in February 1902 was elected a Bencher of Gray's Inn.[1] In 1903 was elected to the House of Commons as representative for Dublin University, also becoming Solicitor-General for Ireland that same year. He was made the country's Attorney General in 1905, being appointed an Irish Privy Counsellor, and in 1916 became Lord Chief Justice of Ireland.
Considerable controversy surrounded the efforts to appoint him a judge: the initial proposal to appoint him Lord Chancellor of Ireland met with fierce resistance from Irish Nationalists, and great efforts were made to find another position for him. It appears that Baron Atkinson was asked to retire from the House of Lords but refused.[2] Pressure was then put on the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, Richard Cherry, who was seriously ill, to step down. Cherry despite his failing health was initially reluctant to do so, but eventually agreed to retire in December 1916.[3] Maurice Healy in his memoirs remarks that Campbell was considered the finest Irish barrister of his time, with the possible exception of Edward Carson, but as a judge he was somewhat fretful and impatient, with a tendency (admittedly not uncommon in judges) to interrupt counsel.[4]
Irish War of Independence
Campbell was created a baronet in 1917, and the following year was appointed Lord Chancellor of Ireland. During the Irish War of Independence, his position was somewhat ambiguous. As head of the judiciary, he was naturally expected by the British Government to do all in his power to uphold British rule; but as his later career showed he was not opposed to the existence of the Irish Free State and was quite willing to play a role in the new Government. This pragmatic attitude naturally infuriated the British administration, some of whom regarded it as a betrayal. Mark Sturgis, the Dublin Castle official whose diaries give a vivid picture of the last years of British rule, condemned Campbell bitterly as a coward who "does nothing and apparently thinks of nothing but the best way to show Sinn Féin that he is neutral and passive."[5] Noted Irish historian R. B. McDowell has commented in relation to this and similar criticism from his successor as Lord Chancellor, Sir John Ross that neither man intended to stay and live in Southern Ireland, Ross moving to his native county Tyrone, Sturgis safely back to England. The implication is that it's easier to be stridently and publicly anti-IRA if you will not be living in a state being run by them subsequently.
On relinquishing office in 1921 he was ennobled as Baron Glenavy, of Milltown in the County of Dublin.
First Chairman of the Irish Free State Seanad
In 1922 he was nominated to the new Free State Seanad by W. T. Cosgrave, and was elected by almost all of his fellow senators as its first chairman (Cathaoirleach) on 12 December 1922.[6] This was in the midst of the Irish Civil War and shortly after his appointment his family home in Kimmage, Dublin was burnt by the anti-Treaty IRA, as part of their campaign against the representatives of the new state.[7]
After the 1925 Seanad election he was again elected as chairman on 9 December 1925 by a vote of 40–12.[8] He did not seek re-election when his term in the Seanad expired in 1928.[9]
Courts Act 1924
In January 1923 Lord Glenavy chaired the Judicial Committee appointed to advise the Executive Council of the Irish Free State (cabinet) on the creation of a new courts system for the Irish Free State. His recommendations were implemented in the Courts of Justice Act 1924 which largely created the Irish courts system as it currently exists.[10] This replaced, and indeed replicated the existing court system as established by the Government of Ireland Act 1920. The so-called "Dáil Courts" were declared to have been illegal, but their outstanding 'judgements' were conferred with legal standing by a separate Act of the Oireachtas. Glenavy clashed with another member of the Committee, Hugh Kennedy, soon to become the first Chief Justice of Ireland, who was in favour of far more radical changes than those recommended by Glenavy and a majority of the Committee. Political differences were compounded by the fact that the two men disliked each other personally.[11]
Lord Glenavy died in Dublin in 1931 and was buried in the city's Mount Jerome Cemetery.
Family
His parents were William Mussen Campbell and Delia Poole Graham, the daughter of Henry Francis Graham of Newtown Abbey, County Kildare. William and Delia lived at Prospect House, Terenure, County Dublin.[12] His paternal grandfather's family was from Glenavy and Magheragall in County Antrim.
His son Charles married the Irish artist Beatrice Elvery, whose family founded Elverys Sports.
His grandson, under the name Patrick Campbell, was a noted satirist in the early years of television. He was a longtime captain of one of the panels in the BBC gameshow Call My Bluff against British comedy writer Frank Muir. Another grandson, Michael Campbell, later the 4th and last Lord Glenavy was the author of the homosexual novel Lord Dismiss Us.
Notes
- "Court circular". The Times (36687). London. 10 February 1902. p. 6.
- Lord Lowry The Irish Lords of Appeal in Ordinary published in Mysteries and Solutions in Irish Legal History, (Four Courts Press, 2001)
- Hogan, Daire "Richard Robert Cherry, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland" published in Mysteries and Solutions in Irish Legal History Four Courts Press 2001
- Healy, Maurice The Old Munster Circuit Michael Joseph Ltd. 1939
- Sturgis, Mark The Last Days of Dublin Castle- the diaries of Mark Sturgis Irish Academic Press 1999
- Seanad debates, 12 December 1922 Archived 25 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- http://www.theirishstory.com/2011/06/21/the-big-house-and-the-irish-revolution/#.UVV74BcqzTo
- Seanad debates, 9 December 1925 Archived 25 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- "Lord Glenavy". Oireachtas Members Database. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
- MacCormaic, Ruadhán The Supreme Court Penguin Random House 2016 p.25
- MacCormaic p.23
- Lundy, Darryl. "William Mussen Campbell". The Peerage.
External links
- . . Dublin: Alexander Thom and Son Ltd. 1923. pp. – via Wikisource.
- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by James Campbell
- A portrait of Lord Glenavy
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