William Francis Kyffin Taylor, 1st Baron Maenan GBE, KC, DL, JP (9 July 1854 – 22 September 1951), was a prominent English barrister and judge.
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Taylor was the son of the Venerable William Francis Taylor, Archdeacon of Liverpool. He was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, educated at Liverpool College and later attending Exeter College, Oxford. Two of his brothers were notable local politicians: Brigadier-General Gerald Kyffin-Taylor, MP for Kirkdale, and Austin Kyffin Taylor, MP for East Toxteth.[1]
Taylor's legal career was one of prestige, becoming a Q.C. in 1895 and holding the office of Presiding Judge of the Court of Passage between 1903 and 1948. Other offices he held included Justice of the Peace for Shropshire, Deputy Lieutenant of Shropshire, Chairman of the Quarter Sessions for Shropshire, Recorder of Bolton in 1901, Bencher of the Inner Temple in 1905, Judge of Appeal for the Isle of Man between 1918 and 1921,Vice-President of the War Compensation Court between 1920 and 1921 and Treasurer of the Inner Temple in 1926.[1] He retired from the bench in 1948, aged 95 and only three years before his death, making him one of the oldest serving judges in Great Britain.
Taylor was invested as a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in 1918, and promoted to Knight Grand Cross (GBE) in 1929.[1] For his services to the judiciary he was raised to the peerage as Baron Maenan, of Ellesmere in the County of Shropshire, on 29 June 1948, then aged 93 and the oldest person ever to be made a peer.[1][2]
Lord Maenan married Mary, daughter of Robert Crooks, in 1883. He died in September 1951, aged 98. His title became extinct on his death as he had no male heir.[1] The Francis Taylor Building (built in 1957) in the Inner Temple is named in his honour.[3]
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| New creation | Baron Maenan 1948–1951 |
Extinct |