File 102 - Sir John Simon

John Allsebrook Simon, 1st Viscount Simon, was born on February 28, 1873, in Manchester, Lancashire, England.

He was a British judge and a Liberal politician. He was educated at Fettes College, Edinburgh and Wadham College, Oxford. After graduating in 1896, he was elected Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. In 1898, he won the Barstow Law Scholarship and was called to the Bar by the Inner Temple in 1899. He was appointed a judge on the Western Circuit in 1908. In 1906, he had been elected Liberal Member of Parliament for Walthamstow, Essex. He soon became a Member of the Cabinet and served as Secretary of State for Home Affairs (1915-1916). He returned as MP for Spen Valley, 1922-1940. A speech he made in the House of Commons contributed markedly to the collapse of the miners' strike in 1926. In 1931, he became Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and later Secretary of State for Home Affairs, 1935-1937. Simon was also Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1937-1940. He served on several government commissions and was Chairman of the Indian Statutory Commission, 1927-1930, which produced a historic report on the working of the 1919 Act concerning the government of India. In 1940, he was elevated to the peerage as Viscount Simon and became Lord Chancellor (1940-1945). Simon remained active in the House of Lords and as a senior judge on the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. He wrote a well-regarded practitioners' text “Simon on Income Tax” in 1948. His other publications include his memoirs, “Retrospect” (1952) and “Income Tax” (5 vols., 1950).

In 1899, he married Ethel Mary Venables (1872–1902), and in 1917, he remarried Kathleen Manning (c. 1863-1955). He died on January 11, 1954, in London, England.