The Right Honourable The Viscount Radcliffe |
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Lord of Appeal in Ordinary | |
In office 1949–1964 |
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Personal details | |
Born |
Cyril John Radcliffe 30 March 1899 Llanychan, Denbighshire, Wales |
Died | 1 April 1977 |
Nationality | British |
Spouse(s) | Hon. Antonia Mary Roby Benson |
Alma mater | University of Oxford |
Cyril John Radcliffe, 1st Viscount Radcliffe GBE, PC, QC, FBA (30 March 1899 – 1 April 1977) was a British lawyer and Law Lord best known for his role in the partition of British India. He served as the first Chancellor of the University of Warwick from its foundation in 1965 to 1977.
Radcliffe was born in Llanychan, Denbighshire, Wales, the son of a British Army captain. His maternal grandfather was the President of the Law Society between 1890 and 1891.
Radcliffe was educated at Haileybury College. He was then conscripted in World War I but his poor eyesight limited the options for service so he was allocated to the Labour Corps. After the War, he attended New College, Oxford as a scholar, and took a first in literae humaniores in 1921. In 1922 he was elected to a prize fellowship at All Souls College, Oxford. He won the Eldon Law Scholarship in 1923.
He was called to the bar by the Inner Temple in 1924, and joined the chambers of Wilfred Greene, later the Master of the Rolls. He practiced at the Chancery bar, and was appointed a King's Counsel in 1935.