James Melville (politician)

Sir James Benjamin Melville KC (20 April 1885 – 1 May 1931) was a British Labour Party politician and government minister, and earlier a successful barrister, who died aged 46, five months before Labour's major defeat in the 1931 general election.

James Melville was born at Le Havre, France, son of William Melville, from County Kerry, Ireland, who was stationed there on Intelligence work, and Kate O'Reilly. He married Sara Tugander, formerly Conservative Prime Minister Bonar Law's private secretary. They were said to be the 'real founders' of the Labour Party in the 'difficult area' of South Kensington, despite his having first started as a Liberal. He died while Solicitor General (as a government MP) on 1 May 1931, aged 46. He was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery in London.

As barrister in 1911 he had successfully defended the anarchists Yourka Dubof and Jacob Peters who were allegedly involved in the Sidney Street siege (also known as the Houndsditch murders) which so embarrassed Winston Churchill. According to Donald Rumbelow's The Siege of Sidney Street, Peters was guilty but the prosecution's case was a shambles. Peters later returned to Russia to play a leading part in the Bolshevik revolution; he became deputy director of the Cheka and worked with Lenin and Dzerzhinsky.

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