Harry Woolf

The Right Honourable The Lord Woolf CH PC FBA FMedSci
Harry Woolf, Baron Woolf, 2015
Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales
In office 6 June 2000 – 2005
Deputy	The Lord Judge
Preceded by	The Lord Bingham of Cornhill
Succeeded by	The Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers
Master of the Rolls
In office 4 June 1996 – 6 June 2000
Preceded by	The Lord Bingham of Cornhill
Succeeded by	The Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers
Lord of Appeal in Ordinary
In office 1 October 1992 – 4 June 1996
Preceded by	The Lord Ackner
Succeeded by	The Lord Hutton
Personal details
Born	(1933-05-02) 2 May 1933 (age 83) Newcastle, England, United Kingdom
Nationality	British
Spouse(s)	Marguerite Sassoon (m. 1961)
Children	3
Alma mater	University College London
Occupation	Lawyer
Religion	Judaism

Harry Kenneth Woolf, Baron Woolf CH PC FBA FMedSci (Chinese: 伍爾夫; born 2 May 1933), was Master of the Rolls from 1996 until 2000 and Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales from 2000 until 2005. The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 made him the first Lord Chief Justice to be President of the Courts of England and Wales. He was a Non-Permanent Judge of the Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong from 2003 to 2012.

He now sits in the House of Lords as a crossbencher.

Woolf was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, on 2 May 1933, to Alexander Susman Woolf and his wife Leah (née Cussins). His grandfather Harry was a naturalised Briton of Polish or Russian Jewish origins. His father had been a fine art dealer, but was persuaded to run his own building business instead by his wife. They had four children, but their first child died, and his mother was protective of the three surviving children. Woolf lived in Newcastle-upon-Tyne until he was about five years old, when his family moved to Glasgow, Scotland and he then went to Fettes College, an Edinburgh public school, where he mostly enjoyed his time and had supportive friends.