Jump to content

Samuel Porter, Baron Porter

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Atchom (talk | contribs) at 15:51, 1 May 2016. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Samuel Lowry Porter, Baron Porter GBE (7 February 1877 – 13 February 1956) was a British judge.

Born in Leeds, Porter was educated at the Perse School and Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He was called to the bar by the Inner Temple in 1905.

Porter served in World War I, gaining the rank of captain and was appointed MBE He was appointed King's Counsel in 1925.[1]

On 28 March 1938, he was appointed Lord of Appeal in Ordinary and created a life peer with the title Baron Porter, of Longfield in County Tyrone. A month later, he was invested to 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, enacted in 1952.[1]

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.[2] Porter resigned as Lord of Appeal in 1954, having been awarded the GBE.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b "Death of Lord Porter - Distinguished Judge", The Glasgow Herald, 14 February 1956, p. 8.
  2. ^ (1946) A.C. 347
  3. ^ Profile, cracroftspeerage.co.uk; accessed 14 June 2015.