John Bigham, 1st Viscount Mersey
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John Charles Bigham, 1st Viscount Mersey (August 3, 1840 - September 3, 1929) was a British jurist and politician. He is notable for heading the official Board of Trade inquiries into the sinking of steamships, most notably the RMS Titanic, the RMS Lusitania, and the Empress of Ireland.
Bigham was born in Liverpool, the son of a merchant. He studed law at London University, then travelled to Berlin and Paris to continue his education. Called to the bar in 1870 by the Middle Temple, he practiced commercial law in and around his hometown. In 1883, Bigham was named a Queen's Counsel.
In 1885, Bigham tried his hand at politics, running as a candidate for Parliament from Toxteth, but lost. He was defeated again in 1892, this time running from the Liverpool Exchange constituency. He was finally elected on his third attempt in 1895; this time, however, he ran as a Liberal Unionist. However, he was never able to make much of a political impact, and his interest in politics was not much to begin with.
In 1895, Bigham was named a judge to the Queen's Bench while continuing his work in business law. He presided over the railway and canal commission of 1904, worked in the bankruptcy courts, and reviewed courts-martial sentences handed down during the Second Boer War. He joined the Probate, divorce and Admiralty division in 1909, but found the work unfulfilling and retired in 1910.
Two years later, Bigham received his greatest fame when he was appointed by Lord Loreburn, the Lord Chancellor in the government of Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith, to head the inquiry commission into the sinking of the RMS Titanic. However, he received criticism for his oversight of this inquiry, as some felt he was biased towards the Board of Trade and the major shipping concerns, and cared less about finding out why the ship sank. In 1913, he presided over the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, and added three more maritime inquiries to his resumé with his heading of the inquiries into the sinkings of the Empress of Ireland (held in Canada in 1914) and the Falaba and Lusitania in 1915.
In 1910, Bigham had been raised to the peerage as Baron Mersey of Toxteth. He was created a viscount in 1916. In his later years, Bigham was beset by deafness, but continued to work actively. He died at Littlehampton in Sussex on September 3, 1929.
Lord Mersey's third son was Sir Trevor Bigham, who became Deputy Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis.
