English barrister and judge
Sir Edward Acton
(6 November 1865 ? 17 November 1945) was an English barrister and judge. He had the distinction of being the first
County Court
judge to be appointed to the
High Court of Justice
.
Biography
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Early life and legal career
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Edward Acton was born in
Manchester
, the son of
Henry Morell Acton
and of Anne Shaw,
nee
Williamson.
[1]
His father was an editor of the
Manchester Guardian
, and the son of the Unitarian minister
Henry Acton
. He educated at
Uppingham School
, where he was an exhibitioner, and
Wadham College, Oxford
, where he was a classical scholar and the Hody Greek exhibitioner.
[1]
Acton took a first in
classical moderations
in 1886 and a second in
literae humaniores
in 1888, then joined the
Inner Temple
as a foundation scholar in 1890. He was
called to the bar
in 1891 and later became a bencher of the Inner Temple.
[1]
He joined the
Northern Circuit
and practiced mainly in Manchester and Liverpool, building up a large practice.
[1]
He additional became a lecturer in the law of evidence and procedure at the
University of Manchester
.
[1]
Judicial career
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Acton had been expected to
take silk
, but surprised his friends in 1918 by accepting appointment as a
County Court judge
. Few County Court judges were ever promoted, and none had ever been promoted to the High Court.
[2]
: 259
and was assigned to circuit 18 at
Nottingham
. In 1920, the
High Court
received two additional judgeships to deal with arrears in the
King's Bench Division
.
Lord Birkenhead
, a former member of the Northern Circuit, selected Acton for one of the vacancies. Acton was duly appointed and received the customary
knighthood
. This was the first time a County Court judge was elevated to the High Court bench, and the appointment was generally welcomed, though it was noted that Acton and Birkenhead had both attended Wadham College and been members of the same circuit.
Assessments of his tenure differ. W. O. Hart in the
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
writes that Acton's appointment was successful and that he was well-regarded as a judge.
Henry Cecil
, however, said that he was "a very poor lawyer" who made so many mistakes of law that successive lord chancellors were dissuaded from promoting further County Court judges; Patrick Polden thought the latter assertion questionable. Whatever the reason, the next appointment from the County Court, of Judge Austin Jones, did not occur until 1945.
Acton left few well-known judgments: he was said to prefer to decide cases based on the facts, without undue elaboration of the law. Of note was his judgment in
Flint v Lovell
[1935] 1 KB 354, where he awarded damages for loss of life expectancy; the judgment was upheld on appeal.
He resigned from the High Court in 1934 on grounds of ill-health, and retired to
Surrey
, where he died in 1945.
Acton married Edith Nina Tulloch, daughter of Conrad William Alexander Tulloch, in 1903; they had no children.
References
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External links
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