Quintin Hogg, Baron Hailsham of St Marylebone

2.1. Family Background

Quintin McGarel Hogg was born on 9 October 1907 in Bayswater, London, England. His father was Douglas Hogg, who would later become the first Viscount Hailsham and serve as Lord Chancellor under Stanley Baldwin. His mother was Elizabeth (née Brown). Quintin's paternal grandfather, also named Quintin Hogg, was a notable merchant, philanthropist, and educational reformer. His American grandmother further connected him to a transatlantic lineage. On his father's side, his great-grandfather, Sir James Hogg, 1st Baronet, was a businessman and politician from Ulster.

The middle name "McGarel" links the family to Charles McGarel, an Ulsterman who held significant numbers of enslaved people. Charles McGarel financially sponsored Quintin Hogg's grandfather, who was McGarel's brother-in-law, thus connecting the family to a legacy of slave ownership.

2.2. Education

Hogg received a comprehensive education, starting at Sunningdale School before moving on to Eton College, where he distinguished himself as a King's Scholar and won the prestigious Newcastle Scholarship in 1925. He continued his academic pursuits at Christ Church, Oxford, entering as a Scholar. During his time at Oxford, he was a prominent figure, serving as President of both the Oxford University Conservative Association and the Oxford Union, a renowned debating society. He achieved academic excellence, earning "Firsts" in both Honour Moderations in 1928 and Literae Humaniores in 1930.

Following his graduation, Hogg was elected to a Prize Fellowship in Law at All Souls College, Oxford, in 1931. He pursued a legal career and was called to the bar by Lincoln's Inn in 1932. As a young man, he participated in the 1933 King and Country debate at the Oxford Union, speaking in opposition to the motion that the House would "in no circumstances fight for its King and Country," indicating his early patriotic stance.

3.1. Entry into Politics and Parliamentary Activity

Quintin Hogg became involved in political campaigning early, participating in his first general election campaign in 1924. He continued to be actively involved in every subsequent general election campaign until his death. In 1938, Hogg was selected as a Conservative candidate for the 1938 Oxford by-election. This by-election occurred shortly after the controversial Munich Agreement. The Labour candidate, Patrick Gordon Walker, was persuaded to withdraw to allow a unified challenge to the Conservatives, leading to A. D. Lindsay, Master of Balliol College, running as an "Independent Progressive" candidate. Hogg narrowly defeated Lindsay, despite the popular and somewhat notorious slogan, "Hitler wants Hogg."

In May 1940, Hogg notably voted against Neville Chamberlain in the Norway Debate, aligning himself instead with Winston Churchill.

3.2. Wartime Service

During the Second World War, Hogg served briefly in the desert campaign as a platoon commander with the Rifle Brigade. His commanding officer at the time was his contemporary from Eton. Hogg was the third-oldest officer in his battalion, after the commanding officer and the second-in-command. In August 1941, he sustained a knee wound that nearly resulted in the loss of his right leg. This injury led to him being deemed too old for further front-line service. Subsequently, he served on the staff of General "Jumbo" Wilson before leaving the army with the rank of major.

In the period leading up to the 1945 United Kingdom general election, Hogg authored a book titled The Left Was Never Right. This work served as a direct response to Guilty Men, a book that aimed to discredit Tory Members of Parliament as appeasers and war profiteers.

4.1. Peerage Succession and Return to Public Office

In 1950, Hogg's father passed away, leading to Hogg's succession as the second Viscount Hailsham and his entry into the House of Lords. Initially, he believed his political career in the Commons was over due to this succession. He then focused on his legal profession, becoming a King's Counsel (QC) in 1953 and head of his barristers' chambers in 1955, succeeding Kenneth Diplock. When the Conservatives returned to power in 1951 under Winston Churchill, Hogg declined to be considered for office. In 1956, he initially refused the position of Postmaster-General in Anthony Eden's government on financial grounds, but six weeks later, he accepted the appointment as First Lord of the Admiralty. His appointment was delayed due to the Crabb affair. In 1956, he was also appointed as a Privy Counsellor.

As First Lord of the Admiralty, Hailsham was informed of Eden's plans for military action against Egypt during the Suez Crisis, which he personally regarded as "madness." Despite his reservations, once Operation Musketeer commenced, he believed Britain could not withdraw until the Suez Canal was captured. During the operation, when Lord Mountbatten threatened to resign as First Sea Lord in protest, Hailsham issued a written order for him to remain on duty, believing Mountbatten deserved ministerial protection and that he himself would have to resign if the Navy's honor was compromised. Hailsham remained critical of the actions of the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, Harold Macmillan, during the crisis, attributing Macmillan's behavior to a "failure of nerve."

4.2. Cabinet and Party Leadership Roles (1957-1963)

Under Harold Macmillan's premiership, Hailsham briefly served as Minister of Education for eight months in 1957. In September 1957, he accepted appointments as Lord President of the Council and Chairman of the Conservative Party. His tenure as Party Chairman was highly successful, culminating in the Conservative Party's unexpected victory in the 1959 United Kingdom general election, which they had been widely predicted to lose. Shortly after the election, Hailsham's influence waned, and he was appointed Minister for Science and Technology, a role he held until 1964. His work as Science Minister was considered successful, leading to his election to the Royal Society in 1973 under Statute 12.

Concurrently, Hailsham held several other significant roles: he was Lord Privy Seal between 1959 and 1960, Lord President of the Council again from 1960 to 1964, and Leader of the House of Lords between 1960 and 1963, having previously served as Deputy Leader from 1957 to 1960. Macmillan also assigned him various special responsibilities, including Minister with special responsibility for Sport from 1962 to 1964, for unemployment in the North-East between 1963 and 1964, and for higher education between 1963 and 1964. Despite his appointment, Hailsham, who had little personal interest in sports, expressed strong disapproval of the concept of a "Minister for Sport," viewing it as savouring "of dictatorship and the nastiest kind of populist or Fascist dictatorship at that." In July 1963, he arrived in Moscow with W. Averell Harriman for nuclear test-ban negotiations.

4.3. Stances on Social Issues and Controversies

Hailsham's views on social issues sometimes drew public criticism. He appeared before the Wolfenden Committee, which examined homosexuality and prostitution in the United Kingdom. According to historian Patrick Higgins, Hailsham used this platform to express his "disgust" regarding homosexuality. He asserted that "The instinct of mankind to describe homosexual acts as 'unnatural' is not based on mere prejudice" and described homosexuals as "corrupting" and "a proselytising religion."

In June 1963, when his fellow minister John Profumo was forced to resign after admitting to lying to Parliament about his private life in the Profumo affair, Hailsham delivered a scathing attack on Profumo during a television appearance. This drew sharp condemnation from Labour MP Reginald Paget, who described it as "a virtuoso performance of the art of kicking a friend in the guts," adding, "When self-indulgence has reduced a man to the shape of Lord Hailsham, sexual continence involves no more than a sense of the ridiculous."

5.1. Disclaimer of Peerage and Leadership Bid

In October 1963, Harold Macmillan unexpectedly announced his resignation from the premiership due to health reasons, at the start of the Conservative Party conference. At this time, there was no formal ballot process for the Conservative Party leadership. Hailsham, then Leader of the House of Lords, was initially considered Macmillan's preferred successor. He declared his intention to utilize the newly enacted Peerage Act 1963 to disclaim his hereditary title and return to the House of Commons by fighting a by-election.

However, his actions during the Party Conference, particularly his public display of feeding his baby daughter and his supporters distributing "Q" badges (for Quintin), were perceived as vulgar and publicity-seeking at the time. This behavior discouraged Macmillan from endorsing him, leading to other senior party members not choosing him as Macmillan's successor.

5.2. Outcome and Return to House of Commons

Ultimately, following Macmillan's advice, The Queen chose Sir Alec Douglas-Home to succeed Macmillan as prime minister. Despite this, Hailsham proceeded with his plan, renouncing his peerage on 20 November 1963 and reverting to the name Quintin Hogg. He then stood in and was elected as the Member of Parliament for St Marylebone, a constituency previously represented by his father, in the 1963 St Marylebone by-election.

As a campaigner, Hogg was known for his robust rhetoric and theatrical gestures, a valuable skill in the politically charged atmosphere of the 1960s. He was generally adept at handling hecklers. On one occasion during a political address, he famously pointed at a long-haired heckler, stating, "Now, see here, Sir or Madam whichever the case might be, we have had enough of you!" The individual was then ejected by police, and Hogg continued his speech without interruption. In another incident, he reportedly struck a Harold Wilson placard held by a Labour supporter with his walking-stick. He was a prominent figure in the 1964 general election campaign.

6.1. First Term (1970-1974)

After serving in the Conservative shadow cabinet during the Harold Wilson government and continuing his legal practice-where he even represented political opponent Harold Wilson as a client-Quintin Hogg returned to power. When Edward Heath won the 1970 United Kingdom general election, Hogg received a life peerage as Baron Hailsham of St Marylebone, of Herstmonceux in the County of Sussex. He was then appointed Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain. Hogg was the first individual to return to the House of Lords as a life peer after having previously disclaimed a hereditary peerage. His appointment as Lord Chancellor sparked some amusement, as he had humorously told a journalist in October 1962 that by 1970, if a Tory government were in power, "some ass might make me Lord Chancellor."

During his first term as Lord Chancellor, Hailsham played a crucial role in the passage of the Courts Act 1971. This act brought about fundamental reforms to the English justice system by abolishing the ancient assizes and quarter sessions, replacing them with permanent Crown Courts. The Act also established a unified court service under the responsibility of the Lord Chancellor's Department, which significantly expanded as a result. Additionally, he guided Heath's controversial Industrial Relations Act 1971, which established the short-lived National Industrial Relations Court, through the House of Lords. His choice of Lord Widgery as Lord Chief Justice was initially criticized by opponents, though he later redeemed himself in the legal profession's eyes by appointing Lord Lane as Widgery's successor.

6.2. "Elective Dictatorship" Theory

After the end of the Heath government in 1974, Hailsham announced his retirement. It was during this period, in 1976, that he popularized the term "elective dictatorship." He later elaborated on this influential theory in detail in his book, The Dilemma of Democracy. This theory posits that the British political system, characterized by a strong government formed from a majority in the House of Commons, can effectively become a temporary dictatorship, concentrating excessive power in the executive branch and potentially undermining the role of Parliament and other checks and balances.

6.3. Second Term (1979-1987)

Following the tragic death of his second wife in a riding accident, Hailsham decided to return to active politics. He first served as a Shadow Minister without Portfolio in the Shadow Cabinets of Edward Heath and Margaret Thatcher. With the formation of the Margaret Thatcher government in 1979, he was once again appointed Lord Chancellor, serving until 1987.

Hailsham was widely regarded as a traditionalist Lord Chancellor. He placed significant emphasis on the traditional roles of his post, frequently sitting on the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords-more often than any of his post-war predecessors. The appointment of deputies to preside over the Lords allowed him to dedicate more time to judicial work, although he often presided over the woolsack himself. He was a staunch protector of the English bar, opposing the appointment of solicitors to the High Court and the expansion of their rights of audience. However, he was also instrumental in implementing the far-reaching 1971 reform of the courts system and championed law reform, including the work of the Law Commission. He resigned from Thatcher's cabinet in 1987.

6.4. Views on Legal Reform after Retirement

After his second retirement, Hailsham became a vocal opponent of the Thatcher government's plans to reform the legal profession. He strongly opposed the introduction of contingency fees, stating that the professions were "not like the grocer's shop at the corner of a street in a town like Grantham"-a direct reference to Margaret Thatcher's origins. He argued that the Courts and Legal Services Act (1990) disregarded "almost every principle of the methodology which law reform ought to attract" and was nothing less than an attempt to "nationalise the profession and part of the judiciary."

7.1. Key Works and Thought

One of Hogg's earliest notable works was his 1945 book, The Left Was Never Right. This was a forceful rebuttal to two books in Victor Gollancz's "Victory Books" series-Guilty Men by Frank Owen, Michael Foot, and Peter Howard, and Your M.P. by Tom Wintringham. Both were published during the war and aimed to discredit Tory Members of Parliament as appeasers and war profiteers. The Wintringham volume was republished just before the 1945 general election and was widely seen as a major factor in shifting public opinion away from the Conservative Party. Hogg's book sought to counter Wintringham's statistics on appeasement with his own patriotic figures, arguing that Labour MPs had been deficient in their wartime duties.

Perhaps his most significant book was the 1947 Penguin paperback, The Case for Conservatism. This work served as a response to Labour Marches On by John Parker MP. Aimed at a mass market and general readership, it presented a well-articulated and coherent argument for Conservatism. Hogg's central thesis was that the role of Conservatism is not to oppose all change but rather to resist and balance the volatility of contemporary political fads and ideologies, and to defend a moderate position that upholds a slowly evolving, organic, and humane traditionalism. For instance, he noted that in the 19th century, Conservatives often opposed the prevailing policies of British liberalism, favoring factory regulation, market intervention, and controls to mitigate the adverse effects of laissez faire capitalism. In contrast, in the 20th century, the Conservative role was to counter an perceived danger from the opposite direction-the regulation, intervention, and controls advocated by social democracy. This work was later revised, updated, and republished as The Conservative Case in 1959. Another notable political work was The Dilemma of Democracy, published in 1979, which provided a detailed exposition of his "elective dictatorship" theory.

7.2. Spiritual and Autobiographical Writings

Hailsham was also known for his writings on faith and personal belief. In 1975, he published his spiritual autobiography, The Door Wherein I Went. This book included a brief chapter on Christian apologetics, in which he employed legal arguments to examine the evidence for the life of Jesus. The book contained a particularly moving passage about suicide, a theme deeply influenced by the fact that his half-brother, Edward Marjoribanks, had taken his own life when Hailsham was a young man. This experience instilled in him a profound conviction that suicide is always wrong.

His writings on Christianity have been a subject of discussion in the works of Ross Clifford. Hailsham revisited themes of faith in his 1991 memoirs, A Sparrow's Flight. The title of this book alluded to remarks about sparrows and faith recorded in Bede's Ecclesiastical History and the words of Christ in the Gospel of Matthew.

7.3. Selected Bibliography

• One Year's Work. London: Hutchinson, The National Book Association. 1944 (As Quintin Hogg.)
• The Times We Live In. London: Signpost Press, 1944. (As Quintin Hogg.)
• The Left Was Never Right. London: Faber and Faber, 1945. (As Quintin Hogg.)
• The Purpose of Parliament. London: Blanford Press, 1946. (As Quintin Hogg.)
• The Case for Conservatism. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1947. (As Quintin Hogg.) Revised, updated, and republished as The Conservative Case, 1959. (As Viscount Hailsham.)
• The Iron Curtain, Fifteen Years After. With a Reprint of [Winston Churchill's] 'The Sinews of Peace' (1946). The John Findley Green Foundation Lectures. Fulton, Missouri: Westminster College, 1961. New York: River Club, 1964. (As Viscount Hailsham.)
• Science and Government. The Fawley Foundation Lectures, 8. Southampton: University of Southampton, 1961. (As Quintin Hogg, Baron Hailsham of St Marylebone.)
• Science and Politics. London: Faber and Faber, 1963. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1974. (As Quintin Hogg, Baron Hailsham of St Marylebone.)
• The Devil's Own Song and Other Verses. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1968. (As Quintin Hogg.)
• New Charter: Some Proposals for Constitutional Reform. London: Conservative Political Centre, 1969. CPC Series No. 430.
• The Acceptable Face of Western Civilisation. London: Conservative Political Centre, 1973. (As Quintin Hogg, Baron Hailsham of St Marylebone.)
• The Door Wherein I Went. London: Collins, 1975. (As Lord Hailsham.)
• Elective Dictatorship. The Richard Dimbleby Lectures. London: British Broadcasting Corporation, 1976. (As Lord Hailsham.)
• The Dilemma of Democracy: Diagnosis and Prescription. London: Collins, 1979. (As Lord Hailsham.)
• A Sparrow's Flight: The Memoirs of Lord Hailsham of St Marylebone. London: William Collins & Sons Ltd, 1991. (As Lord Hailsham.)
• On the Constitution. London: HarperCollins, 1992. (As Lord Hailsham.)
• Values: Collapse and Cure. London: HarperCollins, 1994. (As Lord Hailsham.)

8.1. Marriages and Family

Hailsham was married three times. His first marriage was in 1932 to Natalie Sullivan. This marriage was dissolved in 1943 following his return from wartime service, when he discovered her with François Coulet, who was Charles de Gaulle's chef de cabinet.

On 18 April 1944, he married his second wife, Mary Evelyn Martin (born 19 May 1919), a descendant of the Martyn family from The Tribes of Galway. They had five children together, including Douglas Martin Hogg, who later became the third Viscount Hailsham, and Mary Claire Hogg. In 1950, Hailsham inherited Carter's Corner Place, a 17th-century house with extensive views over the Pevensey marshes and the English Channel, from his father. He engaged in farming there for over a decade. However, in 1963, he sold the property due to its cost and the strain of its upkeep on his wife, although he continued to visit it thereafter. Tragically, Mary was killed in a horse-riding accident in Sydney, Australia, in 1978, while visiting with her husband. Hailsham was deeply distressed by the event and blamed himself for not having reminded her to wear a hard hat. Her gravestone at All Saints, Herstmonceux, Sussex, bears the inscription "radiant and joyous companion."

On 1 March 1986, Hailsham married for a third time to Deirdre Margaret Shannon Aft (1928/9-1998), who had previously worked as a secretary in his legal chambers. She cared for him during his old age but passed away before him in 1998.

8.2. Personality, Hobbies, and Health

Throughout his life, Hailsham retained some of the mannerisms of a clever, albeit sometimes irritating and untidy, schoolboy. He was known for his habit of reciting long passages of Ancient Greek verse at seemingly inappropriate moments during conversations.

In his youth, Hailsham was an enthusiastic mountain-climber. He suffered fractures in both ankles while climbing in the Valais Alps, injuries he mistakenly believed at the time were sprains, which subsequently healed. He remained physically energetic until late middle age. In the 1960s, he was often seen cycling unsteadily around London, dressed in the traditional bowler hat and pinstriped suit of a barrister. He was also a scuba diver and trained with the British Sub-Aqua Club. However, in June 1974, both of his previously injured ankles "packed up within a week of one another," as he later wrote. Thereafter, he could only walk short distances with the aid of two walking-sticks. In his old age, he also suffered from arthritis. Towards the end of his life, Hailsham battled depression, which he managed to some extent through his lifelong passion for classical literature. He remained an active, though somewhat detached, member of the governing body of All Souls College almost until his death.

9.1. Death and Succession

Quintin Hogg, Baron Hailsham of St Marylebone, died on 12 October 2001, at the age of 94, at his home in Putney Heath, London. The causes of his death were heart failure and pneumonia. The viscountcy that he had disclaimed in 1963 was subsequently inherited by his elder son, Douglas Hogg, who was then a sitting Member of Parliament. As a result of the House of Lords Act 1999, which abolished the right of most hereditary peers to automatically sit in the House of Lords, it was no longer necessary for him to disclaim his viscountcy to remain a member of the House of Commons. Like his father and other members of his family, he was buried in the churchyard at All Saints, Herstmonceux, Sussex. His wealth at death was valued for probate at 4.62 M GBP, which was approximately 7.50 M GBP in 2018 prices.

9.2. Honours and Recognition

Throughout his distinguished career, Quintin Hogg received numerous honors and recognitions. In addition to his peerages, he was appointed a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in 1974. He was further honored when he was made a Knight Companion of the Order of the Garter in 1988, one of the highest chivalric orders in the United Kingdom.

9.3. Assessment and Impact

S. M. Cretney, a legal historian, described Hailsham as, by any measure, "one of the outstanding personalities of 20th-century British politics." Cretney noted that few of his contemporaries combined such a brilliant and well-trained intellect with a capacity for oratory that appealed so widely. He suggested that Hailsham's most significant success might have been his role in revitalizing the Conservative Party's fortunes in the 1950s. Nevertheless, Cretney concluded that Hailsham's actual achievements in politics arguably "failed to reflect his remarkable intellectual power and oratorical skills." Given Hailsham's "emotional and temperamental volatility and even instability," Cretney found it challenging "to make any rational estimate of quite what a Hailsham administration would have achieved" had he become Prime Minister in 1963. His legacy as Lord Chancellor is marked by his significant reforms to the courts system and his robust defense of the legal profession.

In Jimmy McGovern's 2002 film Sunday, which depicted the events of Bloody Sunday and the subsequent Widgery Tribunal, Hailsham was portrayed by the actor Oliver Ford Davies.