Rufus Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading
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Rufus Daniel Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading
The English lawyer and statesman Rufus Daniel Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading (1860-1935), known for his brilliant legal career, was an international figure during and immediately after World War I.
Rufus Isaacs, the fourth child and second son of Joseph and Sarah Davis Isaacs, was born on Oct. 10, 1860, in London. At 13 he entered the University College School and completed a year there.
At 15 years of age Rufus left school and entered the family business. His parents, however, desiring to instill a sense of discipline into his life, arranged to have him go to sea for several years. In 1876 he sailed as a shipboy on board the Blair Athole. He returned home 2 years later, having decided against a career at sea.
In the years following his adventure at sea, Isaacs returned to his father's business for a while and then spent 4 years at the stock exchange. Then in 1884 he unexpectedly decided to study law in order to pay off debts he had incurred during the financial slump of that year. Isaacs entered the Middle Temple in 1885, and 2 years later he was admitted to the bar. As a lawyer and later as a justice, he gained great repute for his tact, hard work, and suavity. He was attorney general from 1910 to 1913 and in 1913 was appointed lord chief justice. During these years Isaacs also actively engaged in politics and rose to prominence in the Liberal party. He was the first person to be knighted by George V when he became king; in December 1914 he was created a baron, Lord Reading of Erleigh.
Before and during World War I, Reading's counsel was sought frequently on financial questions; during the war he led several missions to the United States, and in January 1918 he became ambassador to Washington. Although he served as ambassador for just a little over a year, he quickly won the respect of high-ranking officials of both the United States and England and was a great champion of Anglo-American goodwill.
After the war Reading reached the pinnacle of his career when, in 1921, he was appointed viceroy of India. In the 1920s confusion and ill feeling were widespread in India. Mohandas Gandhi was advocating passive resistance, there was agitation against the dyarchy system, and the populace was aroused by the massacre of Indian nationalists in Amritsar in 1919. Throughout these troubled years Reading continued to display the dignity, sagacity, and sense of duty for which he had gained international fame. In 1926 he returned to England and was made a marquess; he became the first commoner since the Duke of Wellington to be so honored. He played a leading role in the Round Table Conferences of 1930 and 1931, which attempted to resolve the Indian problem. In 1931 he served briefly as foreign secretary, and in 1934 he was appointed lord warden of the Cinque Ports. Reading died in London on Dec. 30, 1935.
Further Reading
The best biography of Reading is that by his son, Gerald Rufus Isaacs Reading, 2d Marquess of Reading, Rufus Isaacs, First Marquess of Reading (2 vols., 1942-1945). It is a detailed study of all phases of Reading's life; the chapters on his viceroyalty of India are of particular value. An older study is Stanley Jackson, Rufus Isaacs, First Marquess of Reading (1936). H. Montgomery Hyde, Lord Reading (1967), is a well-written and sympathetic recent biography. For his legal career see Derek Walker-Smith, Lord Reading and His Cases: The Study of a Great Career (1934). W. B. Fowler, British-American Relations, 1917-1918 (1969), is also useful.
Additional Sources
Judd, Denis, Lord Reading, Rufus Isaacs, First Marquess of Reading, Lord Chief Justice and Viceroy of India, 1860-1935, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1982.
Sinha, Aruna., Lord Reading, Viceroy of India, New Delhi: Sterling, 1985.
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Rufus Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading
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Rufus David Isaacs Reading
Reading, Rufus David Isaacs, 1st marquis of (1860-1935). After a bumpy start, Isaacs had an unusually varied and distinguished career. The son of a Jewish fruit merchant from the East End of London, he left school at 14 to join the family business. He next turned to stockbroking but was ‘hammered’ in 1884. His third start was reading law. He was called to the bar in 1887 and quickly established himself. Entering Parliament as a Liberal for Reading in 1904, he was solicitor-general by 1910 and attorney-general the following year. Though singed in the Marconi scandal of 1912, he was appointed lord chief justice in 1913 and given a barony. Next, from January 1918 until 1919 he was ambassador to the USA at a critical time of the war. Reading resumed his legal career, but in 1921 was sent to India as viceroy, remaining there until 1926.
Columbia Encyclopedia:
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Rufus David Isaacs Reading
Reading, Rufus Daniel Isaacs, 1st marquess of (rĕd'ĭng), 1860-1935, British statesman. Called to the bar in 1887, he achieved great success in his profession. He entered Parliament as a Liberal in 1904, became attorney general in 1910, and in 1912 was given a seat in the cabinet. Involved in charges of buying stock in the American Marconi Corp. while the government was contracting with the British branch of the firm, he was, however, exonerated and in 1913 was created lord chief justice. During World War I he served the government in financial operations, becoming (1915) president of an Anglo-French loan commission to the United States, where he subsequently served as special envoy (1917) and special ambassador (1918-19). In 1921 he was made viceroy of India at a time when the people, partly under the influence of Mohandas Gandhi and partly as a result of the massacre at Amritsar (1919), were roused against British rule. Faced with the passive resistance of the Gandhi adherents, Isaacs authorized the imprisonment of Gandhi and felt compelled to allow the hated salt tax. He returned to England in 1926 and was created a marquess (having already been created in succession baron, viscount, and earl), but he was much criticized for his administrative acts in India. He was (1931) foreign secretary in Ramsay MacDonald's National government.
Bibliography
See biographies by his son G. R. Isaacs, 2d marquess of Reading (2 vol., 1943-45), H. M. Hyde (1967), and D. Judd (1982).
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Rufus Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading
| The Most Honourable The Marquess of Reading GCB, GCSI, GCIE, GCVO, PC, KC |
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|---|---|
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| Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Leader of the House of Lords |
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| In office 25 August 1931 – 5 November 1931 |
|
| Monarch | George V |
| Prime Minister | Ramsay Macdonald |
| Preceded by | Arthur Henderson |
| Succeeded by | Sir John Simon |
| Viceroy and Governor-General of India | |
| In office 2 April 1921 – 3 April 1926 |
|
| Monarch | George V |
| Prime Minister | |
| Preceded by | The Lord Chelmsford |
| Succeeded by | The Earl of Lytton |
| Lord Chief Justice of England | |
| In office 21 October 1913 – 8 March 1921 |
|
| Monarch | George V |
| Preceded by | The Viscount Alverstone |
| Succeeded by | The Lord Trevethin |
| Attorney General for England | |
| In office 7 October 1910 – 19 October 1913 |
|
| Monarch | George V |
| Prime Minister | Herbert Henry Asquith |
| Preceded by | Sir William Robson |
| Succeeded by | Sir John Simon |
| Solicitor General for England | |
| In office 6 March 1910 – 7 October 1910 |
|
| Monarch | Edward VII George V |
| Prime Minister | Herbert Henry Asquith |
| Preceded by | Sir Samuel Evans |
| Succeeded by | Sir John Simon |
| Member of Parliament for Reading |
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| In office 6 August 1904 – 19 October 1913 |
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| Preceded by | George William Palmer |
| Succeeded by | Leslie Orme Wilson |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 10 October 1860 Tower Hamlets, London, United Kingdom |
| Died | 30 December 1935 (aged 75) London, United Kingdom |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Liberal |
| Spouse(s) | Alice Edith Cohen (1887–1927) Stella Charnaud (1931–1935) |
| Profession | lawyer, jurist, politician |
| Religion | Jewish |
Rufus Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading, GCB, GCSI, GCIE, GCVO, PC, KC (10 October 1860 – 30 December 1935), was an English lawyer, jurist and politician. Lord Reading was the last Liberal Foreign Secretary. He was the first Jew to be appointed to the British cabinet.
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Biography
The son of a Jewish fruit merchant at Spitalfields, Rufus Daniel Isaacs was educated at University College School, and then entered the family business at the age of fifteen. In 1876–77 he served as a ships-boy and later worked as a jobber on the stock-exchange, 1880–84. He was called to the Bar, the Middle Temple, in 1887.[1]Lord Reading married Alice Edith Cohen in 1887. Alice, Lady Reading, appointed GBE, was a chronic invalid, who eventually died of cancer in 1927, a year after Reading's viceroyalty ended, after 40 years of marriage. He then married Stella Charnaud, the first Lady Reading's secretary. Stella Isaacs was later made a life peeress as Baroness Swanborough, of Swanborough, County Sussex, and later a Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE). His second marriage lasted until his own death in 1935. Isaacs lived at Foxhill House in Earley, adjoining Reading, and was elevated to the Peerage as Baron Reading, of Erleigh in the County of Berkshire, in 1914, and continued to rise in the Peerage: he was created Viscount Reading, of Erleigh in the County of Berkshire, in 1916; Earl of Reading along with the subsidiary title of Viscount Erleigh, of Erleigh in the County of Berkshire, in 1917; and eventually Marquess of Reading in 1926. This is the highest rank in the Peerage reached by a Jew in British history. He was knighted in 1910, made a KCVO in 1911, a GCB in 1915, a GCSI and GCIE in 1921 (upon appointment as Viceroy of India) and a GCVO in 1922.
Legal and political career
Isaacs garnered fame in the Bayliss v. Coleridge libel suit in 1903,[2] and the Whitaker Wright case in 1904. In 1904, he entered the House of Commons as Liberal Party Member of Parliament (MP) for the Reading constituency, a seat he held until 1913. During this period, he served as both Solicitor General and Attorney-General in the government of Herbert Henry Asquith, becoming the first Attorney-General to sit in the Cabinet in 1912. He led for the prosecution in the Seddon poisoning case in 1912 and that same year represented the Board of Trade at the inquiry into the sinking of the RMS Titanic. In 1913, he was made Lord Chief Justice, a position in which he served until 1921.
Isaacs was one of several high-ranking members of the Liberal government accused of involvement in the Marconi scandal.[3] An article published in Le Matin on 14 February 1913 alleged corruption in the award of a government contract to the Marconi Company and insider trading in Marconi's shares, implicating a number of sitting government ministers, including Lloyd George, the Chancellor of the Exchequer; Isaacs, then Attorney General; Herbert Samuel, Postmaster General; and the Treasurer of the Liberal Party, the Master of Elibank, Lord Murray.[4] The allegations included the fact that Isaacs' brother, Godfrey Isaacs, was managing director of the Marconi company at the time that the cabinet, in which Isaacs sat, awarded Marconi the contract.[5][6] Isaacs and Samuels sued Le Matin for libel, and as a result, the journal apologised and printed a complete retraction in its 18 February 1913 issue.[4][7][8] The factual matters were at least partly resolved by a parliamentary select committee investigation, which issued three reports: all found that Isaacs and others had purchased shares in the American Marconi company, but while the fellow-Liberal members of the committee cleared the ministers of all blame, the opposition members reported that Isaacs and others had acted with "grave impropriety".[4] It was not made public during the trial that these shares had been made available through Isaacs's brother at a favourable price.[9]
In 1918, Isaacs was appointed Ambassador to the United States, a position in which he served until 1919, while continuing at the same time as Lord Chief Justice. In 1921, he resigned the chief justiceship to become Viceroy of India. Although he preferred a conciliatory policy, he ended up using force on several occasions, and imprisoned Mahatma Gandhi in 1922. In MacDonald's National Government in August 1931, he briefly served as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, but stood down after the first major reshuffle in November due to ill-health.
Palestine Electric Corporation
Along with Alfred Mond and Herbert Samuel, Isaacs was a founding chairman of the Palestine Electric Corporation, precursor to the Israel Electric Corporation in the British Mandate of Palestine. The Reading Power Station in Tel Aviv, Israel, was named in his honour.
References
- ^ The Concise Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 1992.
- ^ Gratzer, Walter. Eurekas and Euphorias: The Oxford Book of Scientific Anecdotes. Oxford University Press, 2004, p. 226.
- ^ Lady Frances Lonsdale Donaldson, "The Marconi scandal", Harcourt, Brace & World, 1962
- ^ a b c W.J. Baker, "The history of the Marconi company 1874–1965", Routledge, 1998 ISBN 0-415-14624-0, pages 144–146
- ^ Harford Montgomery Hyde, "Lord Reading; the life of Rufus Isaacs, First Marquess of Reading", Heinemann, 1968, pages 124,138–140
- ^ Stanley Jackson, "Rufus Isaacs, first marquess of Reading", Cassell, 1936, pages 167–172
- ^ Ian D. Colvin, "Carson the Statesman", Kessinger, 2005, ISBN 1-4179-8663-8, page 179
- ^ Michael Finch, "G.K. Chesterton: A biography", Weidenfield and Nicholson, 1986, ISBN 0-297-78858-2, pages 204–205
- ^ ^ a b Michael Finch, "G.K. Chesterton: A biography", Weidenfield and Nicholson, 1986, ISBN 0-297-78858-2, pages 204–205
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- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Marquess of Reading
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