The Lord Stow Hill
Frank Soskice (middle) with Sven Arntzen (left) and Maurice Bourguin in The Hague, 1951
Lord Privy Seal
In office
23 December 1965  6 April 1966
Prime MinisterHarold Wilson
Preceded byFrank Pakenham
Succeeded byFrank Pakenham
Home Secretary
In office
18 October 1964  23 December 1965
Prime MinisterHarold Wilson
Preceded byHenry Brooke
Succeeded byRoy Jenkins
Shadow Home Secretary
In office
15 February 1963  18 October 1964
LeaderHarold Wilson
Preceded byGeorge Brown
Succeeded byEdward Boyle
Attorney-General for England
In office
24 April 1951  26 October 1951
Prime MinisterClement Attlee
Preceded bySir Hartley Shawcross
Succeeded bySir Lionel Heald
Solicitor-General for England
In office
4 August 1945  24 April 1951
Prime MinisterClement Attlee
Preceded bySir Walter Monckton
Succeeded bySir Lynn Ungoed-Thomas
Member of Parliament
for Newport
In office
6 July 1956  10 March 1966
Preceded byPeter Freeman
Succeeded byRoy Hughes
Member of Parliament
for Sheffield Neepsend
In office
5 April 1950  6 May 1955
Preceded byHarry Morris
Succeeded byConstituency abolished
Member of Parliament
for Birkenhead East
In office
5 July 1945  3 February 1950
Preceded byHenry Graham White
Succeeded byConstituency abolished
Personal details
Born
Frank Soskice

(1902-07-23)23 July 1902
Died(1979-01-01)1 January 1979 (aged 76)
NationalityBritish
Political partyLabour
SpouseSusan Isabella Cloudsley Hunter
Relatives
Alma materBalliol College, Oxford

Frank Soskice, Baron Stow Hill, PC, QC (23 July 1902 – 1 January 1979) was a British lawyer and Labour Party politician.

Background and education

Soskice's father was the exiled Russian revolutionary journalist David Soskice; his mother Juliet Hueffner was the daughter of Catherine Madox Brown and Francis Hueffer, and so granddaughter of artist Ford Madox Brown, niece of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and sister of Ford Madox Ford.

Soskice was educated at the Froebel Demonstration School, St Paul's School, London, and Balliol College, Oxford. He studied law and was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1926. He served in the British Army with the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry during World War II.[1]

He served first in east Africa and then, as political welfare executive, in Cairo. Later he worked with the Special Operations Executive in London.[2]

His son, David Soskice, is an economist.

Political career

Following the war, he was elected to parliament as a Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Birkenhead East in the 1945 general election, and became Solicitor General,[3] receiving the customary knighthood,[4] in the government of Clement Attlee, serving in that office throughout Attlee's government. He was also, briefly, UK delegate to the United Nations General Assembly. As Solicitor General, Soskice was viewed as an important advocate for the government in the House of Commons. His constituency was abolished in the 1950 election, when he unsuccessfully fought Bebington, but he was soon returned to the House of Commons at a by-election in the Sheffield Neepsend constituency, where the sitting MP Harry Morris stood down to make way for Soskice. In April 1951, he became Attorney General.

In 1952, Soskice joined the shadow cabinet, and his fortunes rose in 1955 with the election of his close ally Hugh Gaitskell as party leader, although he continued his legal practice as well. His Sheffield Neepsend constituency was abolished for the 1955 general election, but in 1956 he won a by-election in the Newport seat in Monmouthshire that he would hold until he retired.

When Labour returned to government in 1964 under Harold Wilson, Soskice became Home Secretary. In this office he did not impress Wilson – he was in poor health, and he botched the response to an electoral boundary change dispute in Northamptonshire and accepted weakening amendments to the Race Relations Act of 1965.

In December 1965, Soskice was relieved of his Home Office responsibilities and made Lord Privy Seal. He had, though, ensured Government support for Sydney Silverman's Private Members Bill, passed on 28 October 1965, which suspended the death penalty in the United Kingdom for five years (except for treason). This reform is sometimes erroneously included with the Jenkins reforms which followed. In fact when the death penalty for murder was finally abolished in 1969,[5] James Callaghan was Home Secretary.

In 1966, Soskice retired, and was created a life peer as "Baron Stow Hill", of Newport in the County of Monmouth on 7 June 1966.[6] Stow Hill is a steep hill in Newport, which runs from the city centre up to St. Woolos Cathedral.

  • According to Yes, Minister co-writer Antony Jay, the case of Timothy Evans (who was wrongfully hanged for the murder of his wife and daughter) was part of the inspiration for the television satire because of Soskice's refusal to reopen the case despite having himself appealed for an inquiry while in opposition.[7]

Arms

Coat of arms of Frank Soskice
Crest
Between two wings addorsed Azure a paint brush and a quill pen in saltire Proper both tipped Gules.
Escutcheon
Argent perched on a triple mount in base Vert charged with a portcullis chained Or a dove wings expanded and in the beak a ship of olive Proper in chief two portcullises chained Gules.
Supporters
On either side a pegasus Azure pendant from a chain about the neck a portcullis Or.
Motto
Ancient Greek: ΗΜΕΙΣ Δ' ΟΙΑ ΤΕ ΦΥΛΛΑ, romanized: Hēmeis, d'oia te phylla, lit.'We, like the leaves'[8][9]

References

  1. "No. 35040". The London Gazette (Supplement). 10 January 1941. p. 247.
  2. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
  3. "No. 37222". The London Gazette. 14 August 1945. p. 4135.
  4. "No. 37243". The London Gazette. 28 August 1945. p. 4345.
  5. The abolition of hanging in Britain
  6. "No. 44014". The London Gazette. 7 June 1966. p. 6598.
  7. Jay, Antony (22 May 1980). "Informed Sources". London Review of Books. 02 (10). Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  8. Debrett's Peerage. 1973.
  9. Mimnermus, fragment 2: Ἡμεῖς δ’ οἷά τε φύλλα
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