Sir George Lewis, 1st Baronet

Sir George Henry Lewis, 1st Baronet (21 April 1833 – 7 December 1911) was an English lawyer of Jewish extraction.

Lewis was born at 10 Ely Place, Holborn in London and educated at University College, London. In 1850 he was articled to his father, James Graham Lewis (1804–1869), founder of Lewis & Lewis, one of the best-known firms of solicitors in the city of London. George was admitted in Hilary term in 1856, and was subsequently taken into partnership by his father and uncle. He first made his name in prosecuting the directors of the Overend and Gurney Bank, who had caused the disastrous panic of 1866, and for a time he devoted special attention to financial cases.

In criminal cases he drew public attention to himself by his cross-examination in the Bravo case in 1875, and from that time onward was connected with most criminal "causes célèbres," being conspicuous in the prosecution of fraudulent persons like Madame Rachel and Slade the medium. Among other cases may be mentioned the Hatton Garden diamond robbery case; Belt versus Lawes; and the Royal Baccarat Scandal, in which the Prince of Wales was called as a witness; and he was selected by the Parnell Commission to conduct the case for Charles Stewart Parnell and the Irish party against The Times. Lewis had by far the largest practise in financial cases of any lawyer in London, and was especially expert in libel cases, being retained by some of the chief newspapers. He showed himself especially skilful in exposing the practises of usurious money-lenders. One of the last cases he was involved in personally was The Archer-Shee case in 1908, the 14-year-old naval cadet expelled from Osborne College accused of stealing a five-shilling postal order, the basis of Rattigan's play The Winslow Boy.

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