Rayner Goddard, Baron Goddard
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The Right Honourable The Lord Goddard GCB PC |
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| 9th Lord Chief Justice of England | |
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In office 23 January 1946 – 29 September 1958 |
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| Monarch |
George VI Elizabeth II |
| Preceded by | The Viscount Caldecote |
| Succeeded by | The Lord Parker of Waddington |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Rayner Goddard 10 April 1877 Notting Hill, Middlesex United Kingdom |
| Died | 29 May 1971 (aged 94) Temple, London United Kingdom |
| Spouse(s) | Marie Schuster (1906–1928) |
| Children | 3 daughters |
| Alma mater |
Marlborough College Trinity College, Oxford |
| Occupation | Judge, Barrister |
Rayner Goddard, Baron Goddard, GCB PC (10 April 1877 – 29 May 1971) was Lord Chief Justice of England from 1946 to 1958 and known for his strict sentencing and conservative views, despite being the first Lord Chief Justice to be appointed by a Labour government, as well as the first to possess a law degree. Goddard's no-nonsense reputation was reflected in a number of nicknames that he acquired, these included: 'The Tiger', 'Justice-in-a-jiffy', and - from Winston Churchill - 'Lord God-damn'.
Rayner Goddard was born on 10 April 1877 at Bassett Road, Notting Hill, London, the second of three sons and the third of five children.
Goddard attended Marlborough College, where he decided on a career in law. In later life he vigorously denied the frequent claims of Lord Jowitt that he had amused his school contemporaries by reciting, word for word, the form of the death sentence upon those whom he disliked. He later attended Trinity College, Oxford and graduated with an upper second-class degree in jurisprudence in 1898, and gained a Blue in athletics. He was called to the Bar by the Inner Temple in 1899.
On 31 May 1906 Goddard married Marie Schuster, the daughter of the banker Sir Felix Otto Schuster, with whom he was to have three daughters. She died on 16 May 1928 during an operation at the age of 44. Goddard never remarried.
He built a strong reputation in commercial cases on the Western Circuit and was appointed as Recorder of Poole (a part-time Judgeship) in 1917. Goddard was appointed a King's Counsel in 1923, transferred to be Recorder of Bath in 1925, and eventually Recorder of Plymouth in 1928. He was elected a Bencher of his inns in 1929 and undertook work for the Barristers' Benevolent Association. In the general election of 1929, Goddard agreed, against his better judgement, to contest the Kensington South constituency as an unofficial Conservative candidate. The sitting Conservative MP, Sir William Davison, had been a defendant in a divorce case, and a local committee thought the newly enfranchised young women voters would refuse to support him. In the end, Goddard, running under the slogan "Purity Goddard", came last in the poll, winning only 15% of the vote, and the sitting member was returned.
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