BIRKENHEAD, FREDERICK EDWIN SMITH, 1ST EARL OF (1872-193o), British politician and lawyer, was born at Birkenhead, July 12, 1872. He was educated at Birkenhead school and Wadham college, Oxford, where he was a scholar. He took a first class degree and in 1894 was president of the Union.
Choosing the law as a career, Smith was called to the bar at Gray's Inn in 1899, and later attached himself to the local bar at Liverpool, where his natural abilities swiftly gained him a con siderable practice. Following his Oxford tradition as a Conserva tive, he was adopted as candidate for the Walton division of Liverpool and made a speech at a public meeting which greatly impressed Joseph Chamberlain. Elected M.P. for Walton in 1906, he held that seat until raised to the lord chancellorship in 1919. He signalised his entry into the House of Commons by delivering, from the broken ranks of the Opposition, a maiden speech of brilliant mockery which made his reputation. A rapidly growing practice at the London bar, where he took silk in 1908, hindered him from pursuing the regular routine of parliamentary oppo sition.
His forensic style differed from his method of public oratory. He inclined to be quiet, dispassionate and deadly in cross examination. A tremendous worker at the bar, he undertook tasks which would have overwhelmed most men in combining law and politics. After the retirement of Chamberlain popular Conservatism found in him its most telling exponent, and in the art of the platform even Lloyd George had to reckon with him.
Smith took a prominent part in the struggle over the Parlia ment bill. He moved its rejection on the third reading, May 191 r, and threw in his lot with the die-hards, who desired the peers to reject the measure. His growing position was recognised by a privy councillorship in 1911 and he became an accepted member of the Conservative "shadow" cabinet. The Irish question was now becoming acute and Smith was Sir Edward Carson's principal lieutenant in the resistance organised in Ulster.
The World War closed the original Irish controversy. Smith accepted the task of controlling the Press Bureau, went to France as eye-witness with the Indian corps, and did valuable work in the administration of army law. He was recalled from France to become solicitor-general in the first Coalition of 1.915, and suc ceeded Sir Edward Carson as attorney-general in November of that year. In this year he was knighted.
When Lloyd George reconstructed his Ministry after the elec tion of 1918 the attorney-general was offered the lord chancellor ship, and was raised to the peerage as Viscount Birkenhead in 1919. The appointment, though quite in the normal order of promotion, was subjected to considerable criticism, partly owing to the new chancellor's comparative youth, but chiefly to his vehement partisanship in earlier years. His chief legislative achievement during his term of office was the Law of Property Act of 1922. This reform, long overdue but perpetually held up by the inertia of the various legal authorities and interests, revolu tionised the whole system of holding landed property. Among Lord Birkenhead's most notable judgments were (I) Director of Public Prosecutions v. Board, dealing with drunkenness as an excuse for crime; (2) Wakeford v. The Bishop of Lincoln; (3) the Rhondda Peerage case before the Committee of Privileges, lay ing down that women could not sit in the Upper House by right of peerage; (4) Admiralty v. s.s. "Volute"—a judgment on the law of negligence in collision cases. Of this fourth deliverance Lord Finlay said "I regard the judgment to which I have just listened as a great and permanent contribution to the law on the subject of contributory negligence, and to the science of juris prudence." The fall of the Coalition Government of 1922 was brought about by the desire of the rank and file of the Conservative party to regain its independence. Lord Birkenhead and some other Con servative ministers opposed this movement in vain at the Carlton Club meeting. As a consequence he was not included either in the administration of Mr. Bonar Law or in that of Mr. Baldwin, and he assumed an attitude of marked independence. On vacating the lord chancellorship he had been made an earl. Mr. Baldwin prudently healed the breach in the Conservative ranks on assum ing office again in 1924, and Lord Birkenhead became secretary of state for India. He resigned from the India office and left the Cabinet in Oct. 1928 in order to devote himself to a commercial career.
Lord Birkenhead, as an Oxford scholar, had a natural taste for letters, and his libraries were filled with carefully selected vol umes. His work on international law has gone through several editions. The essay on Lord Salisbury, originally published in The Times, is his best historical work, and the short sketches of his young friends who died in the War reveal the human side which he always showed to youth. He married in 19o1 Margaret Eleanor, daughter of the Rev. Henry Furneaux of Oxford, the editor of Tacitus. They had one son and two daughters. Lord Birkenhead died Sept. 3o, 193o. (M. W.)