British lawyer, judge and politician (1840?1929)
John Charles Bigham, 1st Viscount Mersey
,
PC
(3 August 1840 ? 3 September 1929) was a British jurist and politician. After early success as a lawyer and a less successful spell as a politician, he was appointed a judge and worked in commercial law.
After his retirement, Mersey remained active in public affairs and is probably best remembered for heading the official
Board of Trade
inquiries into the sinking of
steamships
, most notably RMS
Titanic
,
RMS
Lusitania
, and
RMS
Empress of Ireland
; and also
Falaba
, which gave rise to the
Thrasher incident
.
Early life
[
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]
Bigham was born in
Liverpool
, the second son of John Bigham, a prosperous merchant, and his wife, Helen,
nee
East.
[1]
He was educated at the
Liverpool Institute High School for Boys
, and the
University of London
, where he studied law.
Bigham left the university without taking a degree. He then travelled to Berlin and Paris to continue his education.
Called to the bar
in 1870 by the
Middle Temple
, he practised commercial law in and around his native city. On 17 August 1871 he married Georgina Sarah Rogers, also from Liverpool. The first of their three sons, Charles Clive Bigham (2nd Viscount Mersey), was born in 1872.
[1]
Barrister and judge
[
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In 1883, Bigham was named a
Queen's Counsel
.
[1]
His commercial practice prospered. In 1885, he tried his hand at politics, standing as a
Liberal
candidate for
Parliament
at the Liverpool constituency of
East Toxteth
, but lost.
[2]
In
1892
, he stood unsuccessfully in another Liverpool seat, the
Exchange
constituency. He was finally elected at his third attempt in
1895
, when he stood as a
Liberal Unionist
.
[2]
He was never able to make a great political impact, and his interest in politics was less than that in his legal work, which continued to flourish. During his last decade as a barrister, he was so in demand that he became one of the richest lawyers in his circle.
[1]
In October 1897, Bigham was named a judge to the
Queen's Bench
,
[3]
continuing his work in business law, and disqualifying him being an MP.
[2]
He was
knighted
the following month.
[4]
He was president of the
Railway and Canal Commission
, worked in the bankruptcy courts and reviewed
courts-martial
sentences that were handed down during the
Second Boer War
. He was appointed
President of the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division
in 1909 but found the divorce work unfulfilling and retired in 1910. He was raised to the peerage as
Baron Mersey
, of Toxteth in the County Palatine of Lancaster, the same year.
[1]
Maritime law
[
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]
In 1912, Mersey received his greatest fame when he was appointed by
Lord Loreburn
, the
Lord Chancellor
in the government of
H. H. Asquith
, to head the inquiry commission into the sinking of RMS
Titanic
. There was some criticism of his handling of the inquiry. Some felt that he was biased towards the Board of Trade and the major shipping concerns and cared too little about finding out why the ship sank.
[
clarification needed
]
In 1998, the historian Daniel Butler described Mersey as "autocratic, impatient and not a little testy" but noted the "surprising objectivity" of the inquiry's findings.
[5]
However,
Peter Padfield
later concluded that there had been "crazy deductions, distortions, prejudice, and occasional bone-headed obstinacy of witnesses and the court".
[6]
In 1913, Mersey presided over the
International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea
and added three more maritime inquiries to his resume with his heading of the inquiries into the sinkings of RMS
Empress of Ireland
(held in
Canada
in 1914) and
Falaba
and RMS
Lusitania
in 1915. About the last, Mersey is among those suspected by conspiracy theorists of a cover-up. His biographer Hugh Mooney wrote that such suspicions are wholly conjectural, but "the conclusion of the inquiry (which blamed Germany for the tragedy without reservation) was without doubt politically convenient".
[1]
During the first part of the war, Mersey also worked in the
Prize Courts
, adjudicating seized cargo from the
British blockade
. This included the cases of the Roumanian (1916), and the Odessa (1916). Mersey was raised in the peerage from baron to
viscount
that year.
[1]
Later life
[
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]
In his later years, Mersey was beset by deafness, but continued to work actively and returned to the bench in his eighties when the divorce courts had a heavy backlog. Mooney writes that "he helped to clear the lists with all his old efficiency". His wife died in 1925, and he died four years later at
Littlehampton
in
West Sussex
, aged 89.
[1]
Mersey's third son (although the second surviving) was
Sir Trevor Bigham
, who became
Deputy Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis
. His first son, Colonel Charles Clive Bigham, survived the sinking of the passenger ship
Persia
in 1915.
[
citation needed
]
Notes
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References
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External links
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