Name Samuel Baron | Died February 13, 1956 | |
Samuel Lowry Porter, Baron Porter GBE PC QC (7 February 1877 – 13 February 1956) was a British judge.
Contents
- Early life
- World War I
- Legal career
- Judicial career
- Lord of Appeal in Ordinary
- Styles of address
- References
Early life
Born in Leeds, Porter was educated at the Perse School and Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
World War I
Porter served in World War I, gaining the rank of captain and was appointed MBE.
Legal career
He was called to the bar by the Inner Temple in 1905. He was appointed King's Counsel in 1925.
Judicial career
Porter was appointed to be a recorder of Newcastle-under-Lyme on 18 December 1928 until 1932, and of Walsall in 29 January 1932 until 1934. On 7 November that year, he was appointed to the High Court and was assigned to the King's Bench Division, receiving the customary knighthood on 24 November.
Lord of Appeal in Ordinary
On 28 March 1938, he was appointed Lord of Appeal in Ordinary (without having previously served as a Lord Justice of Appeal) and created a life peer with the title Baron Porter, of Longfield in County Tyrone. On 1 April, he was sworn of the Privy Council. In 1939, he was appointed to chair the Lord Chancellor's committee on defamation law. The committee's work was delayed as a result of World War II, not producing its report until 1948. The report's conclusions were implemented by the Defamation Act 1952.
Porter sat on the appeal of William Joyce, commonly known as "Lord Haw-Haw", who had been convicted of treason for his war-time propaganda broadcasts from Nazi Germany. Porter resigned as Lord of Appeal in 1954, having been appointed to the Order of the British Empire as a Knight Grand Cross (GBE) in the 1951 New Year Honours.