Rufus Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading
The Most Honourable The Marquess of Reading GCB GCSI GCIE GCVO PC KC | |
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Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Leader of the House of Lords | |
In office 25 August 1931 β 5 November 1931 | |
Monarch | George V |
Prime Minister | Ramsay Macdonald |
Preceded by | Arthur Henderson |
Succeeded by | Sir John Simon |
Viceroy and Governor-General of India | |
In office 2 April 1921 β 3 April 1926 | |
Monarch | George V |
Prime Minister | See list
|
Preceded by | The Lord Chelmsford |
Succeeded by | The Earl of Lytton |
Lord Chief Justice of England | |
In office 21 October 1913 β 8 March 1921 | |
Monarch | George V |
Preceded by | The Viscount Alverstone |
Succeeded by | The Lord Trevethin |
Attorney General for England | |
In office 7 October 1910 β 19 October 1913 | |
Monarch | George V |
Prime Minister | Herbert Henry Asquith |
Preceded by | Sir William Robson |
Succeeded by | Sir John Simon |
Solicitor General for England | |
In office 6 March 1910 β 7 October 1910 | |
Monarch | Edward VII George V |
Prime Minister | Herbert Henry Asquith |
Preceded by | Sir Samuel Evans |
Succeeded by | Sir John Simon |
Member of Parliament for Reading | |
In office 6 August 1904 β 19 October 1913 | |
Preceded by | George William Palmer |
Succeeded by | Leslie Orme Wilson |
Personal details | |
Born | Rufus Daniel Isaacs 10 Tower Hamlets, London, United Kingdom |
Died | 30 December 1935 75) Mayfair, London, United Kingdom | (aged
Nationality | British |
Political party | Liberal |
Spouse(s) | Alice Edith Cohen (1887β1927) Stella Charnaud (1931β1935) |
Profession | lawyer, jurist, politician |
Religion | Jewish |
Rufus Daniel Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading, GCB GCSI GCIE GCVO PC KC (10 October 1860 β 30 December 1935) was the Viceroy of India (1921β25), barrister, jurist and the last member of the official Liberal Party to serve as Foreign Secretary. He was the second practising Jew to be a member of the British cabinet (the first being Herbert Samuel,[1] who was also a member of the Asquith Government), the first Jew to be Lord Chief Justice of England, and the first British Jew to be raised to a marquessate.
Biography
The son of a Jewish fruit merchant at Spitalfields, Rufus Daniel Isaacs was educated at University College School and then entered the family business at the age of 15. In 1876β77 he served as a ship's boy and later worked as a jobber on the stock-exchange from 1880β84.
He entered the Middle Temple to study law, and was called to the Bar in 1887.[2] He was appointed a QC in 1898.[3]
In 1887 he married Alice Edith Cohen, who suffered from a chronic physical disability and died of cancer in 1927, after 40 years of marriage, and a year after Reading's Indian viceroyalty ended. He then married Stella Charnaud, the first Lady Reading's secretary. His second marriage lasted until his own death in 1935. After his death Stella Isaacs was made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1941,[4] promoted to Dame Grand Cross (GBE) in 1944,[5] and then in 1958 made a life peeress as Baroness Swanborough, of Swanborough in the County of Sussex.
Isaacs lived at Foxhill House in Earley, adjoining Reading, and was elevated to the Peerage as Baron Reading, of Erleigh in the County of Berkshire, in 1914, and continued to rise in the Peerage: he was created Viscount Reading, of Erleigh in the County of Berkshire, in 1916; Earl of Reading along with the subsidiary title of Viscount Erleigh, of Erleigh in the County of Berkshire, in 1917; and eventually Marquess of Reading in 1926. This is the highest rank in the Peerage reached by a Jew in British history. He was knighted in 1910, made a KCVO in 1911, a GCB in 1915, a GCSI and GCIE in 1921 (upon appointment as Viceroy of India) and a GCVO in 1922. Although he had no apparent link with Canada, his eminence was such that the Lord Reading Law Society (founded in 1948 to promote the interests of Jewish members of the Quebec Bar) was named in his honour.[6]
Lord Reading died in London in December 1935 aged 75. After cremation at Golders Green Crematorium his ashes were buried at the nearby Jewish cemetery.[7] The house where he died, No. 32 Curzon Street in Mayfair, has had a blue plaque on it since 1971.[8]
Legal and political career
Isaacs garnered fame in the Bayliss v. Coleridge libel suit in 1903,[9] and the Whitaker Wright case in 1904. In 1904, he entered the House of Commons as Liberal Party Member of Parliament (MP) for the Reading constituency, a seat he held until 1913. During this period, he served as both Solicitor General and Attorney-General in the government of Herbert Henry Asquith, becoming the first Attorney-General to sit in the Cabinet in 1912. He led for the prosecution in the Seddon poisoning case in 1912 and that same year represented the Board of Trade at the inquiry into the sinking of the RMS Titanic. In 1913, he was made Lord Chief Justice, a position in which he served until 1921.
Isaacs was one of several high-ranking members of the Liberal government accused of involvement in the Marconi scandal.[10] An article published in Le Matin on 14 February 1913 alleged corruption in the award of a government contract to the Marconi Company and insider trading in Marconi's shares, implicating a number of sitting government ministers, including Lloyd George, the Chancellor of the Exchequer; Isaacs, then Attorney General; Herbert Samuel, Postmaster General; and the Treasurer of the Liberal Party, the Master of Elibank, Lord Murray.[11] The allegations included the fact that Isaacs' brother, Godfrey Isaacs, was managing director of the Marconi company at the time that the cabinet, in which Isaacs sat, awarded Marconi the contract.[12][13] Isaacs and Samuels sued Le Matin for libel, and as a result, the journal apologised and printed a complete retraction in its 18 February 1913 issue.[11][14][15] The factual matters were at least partly resolved by a parliamentary select committee investigation, which issued three reports: all found that Isaacs and others had purchased shares in the American Marconi company, but while the fellow-Liberal members of the committee cleared the ministers of all blame, the opposition members reported that Isaacs and others had acted with "grave impropriety".[11] It was not made public during the trial that these shares had been made available through Isaacs's brother at a favourable price.[16]
In 1918, Isaacs was appointed Ambassador to the United States, a position in which he served until 1919, while continuing at the same time as Lord Chief Justice. In 1921, he resigned the chief justiceship to become Viceroy of India. Although he preferred a conciliatory policy, he ended up using force on several occasions, and imprisoned Mahatma Gandhi in 1922. In MacDonald's National Government in August 1931, he briefly served as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, but stood down after the first major reshuffle in November due to ill-health.
Israel Electric Corporation
Along with his in-law Alfred Mond and Herbert Samuel, Isaacs was a founding chairman of the Palestine Electric Corporation, precursor to the Israel Electric Corporation in the British Mandate of Palestine. The Reading Power Station in Tel Aviv, Israel was named in his honour.
Gallery
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Mr. Lloyd George, Lord Reading and M. Albert Thomas visiting the Front, France. (photographed by Ernest Brooks)
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Isaacs caricatured by Spy for Vanity Fair, 1904
References
- β Although Samuel's religious views were generally considered to be atheist, he remained an observant Jew to please his wife: see Wasserstein, Bernard. "Samuel, Herbert Louis". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 22 March 2014. Isaacs could be considered the first believing Jew to be a member of the Cabinet.
- β The Concise Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 1992.
- β "Who's Who".
- β The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 35029. p. 12. 1 January 1941.
- β The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 36544. p. 2586. 8 June 1944.
- β "About". The Lord Reading Law Society. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
- β The Complete Peerage, Volume XIII, Peerage Creations 1901-1938. St Catherine's Press. 1949. p. 182.
- β "Rufus Isaacs blue plaque". openplaques.org. Retrieved 24 November 2013.
- β Gratzer, Walter. Eurekas and Euphorias: The Oxford Book of Scientific Anecdotes. Oxford University Press, 2004, p. 226.
- β Lady Frances Lonsdale Donaldson, "The Marconi scandal", Harcourt, Brace & World, 1962
- β 11.0 11.1 11.2 W.J. Baker, "The history of the Marconi company 1874β1965", Routledge, 1998 ISBN 0-415-14624-0, pages 144β146
- β Harford Montgomery Hyde, "Lord Reading; the life of Rufus Isaacs, First Marquess of Reading", Heinemann, 1968, pages 124,138β140
- β Stanley Jackson, "Rufus Isaacs, first marquess of Reading", Cassell, 1936, pages 167β172
- β Ian D. Colvin, "Carson the Statesman", Kessinger, 2005, ISBN 1-4179-8663-8, page 179
- β Michael Finch, "G.K. Chesterton: A biography", Weidenfield and Nicholson, 1986, ISBN 0-297-78858-2, pages 204β205
- β ^ a b Michael Finch, "G.K. Chesterton: A biography", Weidenfield and Nicholson, 1986, ISBN 0-297-78858-2, pages 204β205
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rufus Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading. |
- Hansard 1803β2005: contributions in Parliament by the Marquess of Reading
Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
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Preceded by George William Palmer |
Member of Parliament for Reading 1904β1913 |
Succeeded by Leslie Orme Wilson |
Political offices | ||
Preceded by The Lord Parmoor |
Leader of the House of Lords 1931 |
Succeeded by The Viscount Hailsham |
Preceded by Arthur Henderson |
Foreign Secretary 1931 |
Succeeded by Sir John Simon |
Party political offices | ||
Preceded by The Earl Beauchamp |
Leader of the Liberals in the House of Lords 1931β1935 |
Succeeded by The Marquess of Crewe |
Legal offices | ||
Preceded by Sir Samuel Evans |
Solicitor General 1910 |
Succeeded by Sir John Simon |
Preceded by Sir William Robson |
Attorney General 1910β1913 | |
Preceded by The Lord Alverstone |
Lord Chief Justice 1913β1921 |
Succeeded by The Lord Trevethin |
Government offices | ||
Preceded by The Lord Chelmsford |
Viceroy of India 1921β1925 |
Succeeded by The Earl of Lytton |
Diplomatic posts | ||
Preceded by Sir Cecil Spring Rice |
British Ambassador to the United States 1918β1919 |
Succeeded by The Viscount Grey of Fallodon |
Honorary titles | ||
Preceded by The Earl Beauchamp |
Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports 1934β1935 |
Succeeded by The Marquess of Willingdon |
Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
New creation | Marquess of Reading 1926β1935 |
Succeeded by Gerald Isaacs |
Earl of Reading 1917β1935 | ||
Viscount Reading 1916β1935 | ||
Baron Reading 1914β1935 |
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