The Right Honourable The Earl of Halsbury PC, KC |
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---|---|
Lord Chancellor | |
In office 24 June 1885 – 28 January 1886 |
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Monarch | Victoria |
Prime Minister | The Marquess of Salisbury |
Preceded by | The Earl of Selborne |
Succeeded by | The Lord Herschell |
In office 3 August 1886 – 11 August 1892 |
|
Monarch | Victoria |
Prime Minister | The Marquess of Salisbury |
Preceded by | The Lord Herschell |
Succeeded by | The Lord Herschell |
In office 29 June 1895 – 4 December 1905 |
|
Monarch |
Victoria Edward VII |
Prime Minister |
The Marquess of Salisbury Arthur Balfour |
Preceded by | The Lord Herschell |
Succeeded by | The Lord Loreburn |
Personal details | |
Born |
3 September 1823 London |
Died | 11 December 1921 (aged 98) |
Nationality | British |
Political party | Conservative |
Spouse(s) | (1) Caroline Humphreys (d. 1873) (2) Wilhelmina Woodfall (d. 1927) |
Alma mater | Merton College, Oxford |
Hardinge Stanley Giffard, 1st Earl of Halsbury, PC, KC (3 September 1823 – 11 December 1921) was a leading barrister, politician and government minister. He served thrice as Lord Chancellor of Great Britain.
Born in London, Giffard was the third son of Stanley Lees Giffard, editor of the Standard, by his wife Susanna, daughter of Francis Moran. He was educated at Merton College, Oxford, where he obtained a fourth-class degree in literae humaniores. He was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1850.
Giffard joined the Western, then the South Wales circuits. Afterwards he had a large practice at the Central Criminal Court and the Middlesex sessions, and he was for several years junior prosecuting counsel to the Treasury. He was engaged in most of the celebrated trials of his time, including the Overend and Gurney and the Tichborne cases. He became Queen's Counsel in 1865, and a bencher of the Inner Temple.
Giffard twice contested Cardiff for the Conservatives in 1868 and 1874, but he was still without a seat in the House of Commons when he was appointed Solicitor General by Disraeli in 1875 and received the customary knighthood. He also failed to gain a seat in a by-election in Horsham in 1876. In 1877 he succeeded in obtaining a seat, when he was returned for Launceston, which he continued to represent until his elevation to the peerage.