Frederic Maugham, 1st Viscount Maugham
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The Right Honourable The Viscount Maugham PC QC |
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| Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain | |
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In office 9 March 1938 – 3 September 1939 |
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| Monarch | George VI |
| Prime Minister | Neville Chamberlain |
| Preceded by | The Viscount Hailsham |
| Succeeded by | The Viscount Caldecote |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
20 October 1866 Paris, France |
| Died | 23 March 1958 (aged 91) |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouse(s) | Helen Romer (1872–1950) |
| Alma mater | Trinity Hall, Cambridge |
Frederic Herbert Maugham, 1st Viscount Maugham PC QC (20 October 1866 – 23 March 1958) was a British lawyer and judge who served as Lord Chancellor from March 1938 until September 1939.
Born in Paris, Maugham was the son of Robert Ormond Maugham by his wife, Edith, daughter of Major Charles Snell. The author W. Somerset Maugham was his younger brother. He was educated at Dover College and at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He rowed for the winning Cambridge crew in the 1888 Boat Race and was also in the winning Trinity Hall Boat Club coxless four which won the Stewards' Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta that year. He was in the winning Cambridge crew in the Boat Race again in 1889. He also became President of the Cambridge Union Society in Lent Term 1889.
Maugham was called to the bar by Lincoln's Inn, in 1890, and then embarked upon a legal career, becoming a King's Counsel in 1913. In 1922 he briefly considered entering politics as a Conservative Member of Parliament but could not find a seat. He was a Judge of the High Court of Justice (Chancery Division) from 1928 to 1934 and a Lord Justice of Appeal from 1934 to 1935. He was knighted in 1928 and sworn of the Privy Council in 1934. In 1935 he became a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, made a life peer and entered the House of Lords as Baron Maugham, of Hartfield in the County of Sussex. Three years later he was offered the position of Lord Chancellor by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. Such was Maugham's lack of political experience that Chamberlain and he had never met before. He was offered the role because there were very few obvious available choices amongst the ranks of parliamentary supporters of the National Government to replace the ailing Lord Hailsham, as the obvious successor, Sir Thomas Inskip, could not be moved from the position of Minister for Coordination of Defence.
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