Name Douglas 1st Parents Alice Hogg, Quintin Hogg Succeeded by The Viscount Sankey | Preceded by The Viscount Cave Role British Politician | |
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Monarch George VEdward VIIIGeorge VI Prime Minister Stanley BaldwinNeville Chamberlain Spouse Elizabeth Marjoribanks (m. 1905) Grandparents Sir James Hogg, 1st Baronet | ||
Douglas McGarel Hogg, 1st Viscount Hailsham, PC, KC (28 February 1872 – 16 August 1950) was a British lawyer and Conservative politician.
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Early life and career
Born in London, Hogg was the son of the merchant and philanthropist Quintin Hogg, seventh son of Sir James Hogg, 1st Baronet. He was educated at Cheam School and Eton College, before studying sugar growing in the West Indies. After serving in the Boer War he was called to the bar by Lincoln's Inn in 1902, was appointed King's Counsel in 1917, and became a bencher of Lincoln's Inn in 1920.
Political career
Hogg was appointed Attorney General by Bonar Law in October 1922. Though not an MP, Hogg was chosen for the position because Bonar Law found himself short of law officers after the Conservative-Liberal coalition collapsed as a result of the Carlton Club meeting. He was elected to the House of Commons unopposed the following month for St Marylebone in the general election. He received the customary knighthood and was sworn in the Privy Council in December 1922. Serving as Attorney General until Labour assumed office after the 1923 election, Hogg was reappointed to the post, with a seat in the Cabinet, when the Conservatives were returned to power in 1924.
As Attorney-General, Hogg guided the Trade Disputes Act of 1927 through the House of Commons after the general strike of 1926 which had ended with large-scale unemployment while those still employed were forced to accept longer hours, lower wages, and district wage agreements. The Trade Disputes and Trade Union Act made mass picketing and all sympathetic strikes illegal and directed that union members had to contract into any political levy. It also forbade civil service unions from affiliating with the Trades Union Congress.
In 1928, he became Lord Chancellor in Stanley Baldwin's government, and was created Baron Hailsham, of Hailsham in the County of Sussex. He served until the government's defeat in 1929.
In 1929, he was created Viscount Hailsham, of Hailsham in the County of Sussex. From 1931 to 1935 he served as Secretary of State for War. He again served as Lord Chancellor from 1935 to 1938, first under Baldwin, then under Neville Chamberlain. During his second term he was the last Lord High Steward to preside over the trial of a peer (the 26th Baron de Clifford) in the House of Lords. In 1938, ill-health led to his appointment as Lord President of the Council, a post with less onerous duties, but he had to retire from the government a few months later.
He died on 16 August 1950.
Family
Lord Hailsham married Elizabeth Marjoribanks (née Brown), widow of Hon Archibald Marjoribanks, and daughter of James Trimble Brown of Tennessee, in 1905. They had two sons: