Harold Derbyshire

Derbyshire in 1928, copyright/courtesy National Portrait Gallery

Sir Harold Derbyshire MC QC (25 December 1886 – 14 September 1972) was an English barrister, judge and Liberal Party politician.

Background and education

Derbyshire was born in Cherry Tree, Blackburn, Lancashire, England, the son of James Derbyshire and Elizabeth Kate Chew. He was educated at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Blackburn, and then on a scholarship at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he studied Natural Sciences. He afterwards gained an LLB. In 1915 he married Dorothea Alice Taylor in Blackburn.^[1]

Derbyshire was admitted to Gray's Inn, where he was called to the Bar in 1911. He practised on the Northern Circuit and was made a KC in 1928. He was elected a Bencher of Gray's Inn in 1931. From 1933-34 he served as Judge of Appeal in the Isle of Man. From 1934 to 1946 he was Chief Justice at the High Court of Calcutta. In 1948 he was the Inn's Treasurer. He retired from public life in 1950.

Derbyshire served with distinction during World War I in the Royal Artillery in France and Belgium, and was awarded the MC in the 1918 Birthday Honours.

In the 1923 General Election he contested the seat of Clitheroe and in the 1929 General Election that of Royton, standing for the Liberal Party, but was unsuccessful on both occasions.

General election 1923: Clitheroe ^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	William Brass	12,998	42.9	−11.8
	Labour	Alfred Davies	11,469	37.9	−7.4
	Liberal	Harold Derbyshire	5,810	19.2	n/a
Majority			1,529	5.0	−4.4
Turnout			30,277	88.2	+2.9
Registered electors			34,329
	Unionist hold		Swing	−2.2

General election 1929: Royton
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Arthur Vernon Davies	15,051	38.4	−5.6
	Liberal	Harold Derbyshire	13,347	34.1	−2.3
	Labour	Albert Ernest Wood	10,763	27.5	+7.9
Majority			1,704	4.3	−3.3
Turnout			39,161	82.9	−3.4
Registered electors			47,266
	Unionist hold		Swing	−1.7

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