David Patrick Maxwell Fyfe, 1st Earl of Kilmuir (29 May 1900 – 27 January 1967), known as Sir David Maxwell Fyfe from 1942 to 1954 and as Viscount Kilmuir from 1954 to 1962, was a British Conservative politician, lawyer and judge who combined a legal career with political ambitions that took him to the offices of Solicitor General, Attorney General, Home Secretary and Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain.

One of the prosecuting counsel at the Nuremberg Trials, he subsequently played a role in drafting the European Convention on Human Rights. As Home Secretary from 1951 to 1954 he greatly increased the number of prosecutions of homosexuals and declined to commute Derek Bentley's death sentence for the murder of a police officer. His political ambitions were ultimately dashed in Harold Macmillan's cabinet reshuffle of July 1962.

Early life

Born in Edinburgh, the only son of William Thomson Fyfe, headmaster of Aberdeen Grammar School, by his second wife Isabella Campbell, daughter of David Campbell, of Dornoch, Sutherland, he was educated at George Watson's College and Balliol College, Oxford, where he achieved a third-class degree in Greats. Whilst at Oxford, he was a member of the Stubbs Society. His academic education was paused during his service in the Scots Guards in 1918–19, at the end of the World War I. After graduation, he worked for the British Commonwealth Union as political secretary to Sir Patrick Hannon MP, studying law in his spare time. He entered Gray's Inn and was called to the bar in 1922. He became a pupil of George Lynskey in Liverpool then joined his chambers to practise. Maxwell Fyfe later wrote that his ambition was to be a silk (King's Counsel) in his thirties, a minister in his forties and at the top of the legal profession in his fifties.

Not pausing before beginning his political career in earnest, he stood as a Conservative for Wigan in 1924, an unwinnable parliamentary seat. He cultivated the more winnable Spen Valley until 1929 when the party resolved not to oppose sitting Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) Sir John Simon while he was absent on the Simon Commission in India. Maxwell Fyfe was eventually elected to Parliament in Liverpool West Derby in a by-election in July 1935. He was Recorder of Oldham from 1936 to 1942. and, at the outbreak of World War II in September, he was deployed to the Judge Advocate-General's department with rank of major. He was badly injured in an air raid in September 1940. In May 1941 Maxwell Fyfe became deputy to Rab Butler's chairmanship of the Conservative Party Post War Problems Committee to draft policies for after the war. He took over as chairman from Butler between July 1943 and August 1944 while Butler was busy passing the Education Act 1944 (see Political career of Rab Butler (1941–1951)). Whether Maxwell Fyfe believed such executions were the best method of dealing with the Nazis may be doubted, in view of his later work at the Nuremberg Trials; at the time, however, as a member of the government he had little choice but to follow the lead of the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, who repeatedly urged that summary justice be visited upon the Nazi leaders. When the war in Europe ended and the coalition was dissolved in May 1945, Maxwell Fyfe was briefly Attorney-General in Churchill's caretaker government. There were misgivings in some quarters as to how Maxwell Fyfe would perform, cross-examination not being regarded as one of his strengths. However, his cross-examination of Hermann Göring was one of the most noted in history. he criticised Sir Anthony Eden for a negative stance that derailed the UK's opportunity to become a leader in Europe. Eden always rejected this and considered a libel action against Maxwell Fyfe. When Sir Percy Sillitoe resigned as DG in 1953, Maxwell Fyfe delegated the shortlisting of a successor to a committee of civil servants chaired by Sir Edward Bridges. The committee put forward Dick White and Sir Kenneth Strong. Maxwell Fyfe endorsed the committee's preference for White, observing to Churchill that an internal appointment would be good for the morale of the service.

Maxwell Fyfe's assumption of office as Home Secretary heralded a reign of fear for male homosexuals. A stern advocate of existing legislation criminalising homosexual acts, he started a campaign to "rid England of this male vice … this plague" by dramatically increased arrests of male homosexuals through police surveillance and entrapment via the use of agents provocateurs, tapped telephones, forged documents and the absence of warrants. From 1,276 prosecutions in 1939 for actual or attempted sodomy or gross indecency, a year after he had assumed the office of Home Secretary prosecutions had soared to 5,443. As Bedell also notes: "Perhaps he thought, by handing over to a committee, to shelve the issue. Perhaps he assumed Wolfenden would find against, in which case, he chose a curious chairman, because Wolfenden had a gay son, Jeremy." Kilmuir still opposed liberalisation when a bill was introduced in the Lords (by Lord Arran) in 1965. Says Bedell: "For the opposition, Lord Kilmuir warned against licensing the 'buggers' clubs' which he claimed were operating behind innocent-looking doors all over London."

During his tenure as Home Secretary, he was embroiled in the controversy surrounding the hanging of Derek Bentley. However, on most issues he was on the progressive wing of the Conservative Party, opposing the proposals in 1953 for the re-introduction of corporal punishment. and moved to the House of Lords and the "woolsack". Lord Kilmuir was a political Lord Chancellor, not restricting himself to his judicial role. He worked on many government issues including the constitution of Malta, which he wanted to become part of the UK, and the creation of the Restrictive Practices Court. In his eight years in the post he only sat as a judge on 24 appeals to the House of Lords. Lord Kilmuir opposed Sydney Silverman's 1956 private member's bill to abolish capital punishment. He described it as "an unwise and dangerous measure, the presence of which on the statute book would be a disaster for the country and a menace to the people". However, Kilmuir chaired the cabinet committee that recommended limiting the death penalty's scope and which led to the Homicide Act 1957. He feared the consequences of immigration to the United Kingdom and presented a report to the cabinet in 1956. Lord Kilmuir contended that the military intervention in the 1956 Suez Crisis was justified under the self-defence provisions of Article 51 of the United Nations Charter. to cushion the blow of retirement. He is said to have complained to Macmillan that he was being sacked with less notice than would be given to a cook, to which Macmillan replied that it was easier to get Lord Chancellors than good cooks.

Personal life and death

He married Sylvia Harrison in 1925 and they had three daughters, one of whom pre-deceased him. His brother-in-law was the actor Sir Rex Harrison.

After government, Kilmuir joined the board of directors of Plessey but his health soon declined. He died at Withyham, Sussex, on 27 January 1967 and was cremated. His ashes were buried at the church of St Michael and All Angels at Withyham. His wealth at death was £22,202 (). His titles, which could pass only to sons, became extinct, as he had fathered only daughters.

  • University of Edinburgh (LL.D) 1955.
  • University of Wales;
  • University of Ottawa (LL.D) 16 September 1960.
  • Visitor of St Antony's College, Oxford (1953); and
  • Rector of the University of St Andrews (1956).

Portrayals

David Maxwell Fyfe has been portrayed by the following actors in film, television and theatre productions:

  • Iain Cuthbertson (1991) Let Him Have It (British/French film)
  • Christopher Plummer (2000) Nuremberg (Canadian/U.S. TV production)
  • Julian Wadham (2006) Nuremberg: Nazis on Trial (British television docudrama)
  • Mel Smith (2007) Consenting Adults (British television drama)
  • John Warnaby in Nicholas de Jongh's stage play, Plague Over England (London, 2009)
  • As of 2011, there was a film being made about him called Under an English Heaven by his grandson Tom Blackmore. Though a complete film was never made.
  • Zdzisław Mrożewski in the Polish film Epilog norymberski
  • Richard E. Grant (2025) Nuremberg (U.S. film)

References

Bibliography

  • Obituaries:
  • The Times, 28 January 1967
  • The Guardian, 28 January 1967
  • Dutton, D. J. (2004)"Fyfe, David Patrick Maxwell, Earl of Kilmuir (1900–1967)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, accessed 4 Aug 2007
  • Lord Kilmuir (1964) Political Adventure
  • Tusa, A. & Tusa, J. (1983) The Nuremberg Trial
  • The Papers of Lord Kilmuir held at Churchill Archives Centre

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