View source for John Hamilton, 1st Viscount Sumner

{{Short description|British lawyer and judge}}
{{Other people|John Hamilton}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix = [[The Right Honourable]]
| name = The Viscount Sumner
| honorific-suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|GCB|PC}}
| image         = 1stViscountSumner.jpg
| imagesize = 200px
| caption = Contemporary photograph of Lord Sumner by Walter Thomas
| birth_date = {{birth date|1859|2|3|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Chorlton-upon-Medlock]], [[Lancashire]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|1934|5|24|1859|2|3|df=y}}
| death_place = 
| nationality = British
| party =  
| alma_mater = [[Balliol College, Oxford]]
| spouse = {{marriage|Maude Margaret Todd|1892}}
}}
'''John Andrew Hamilton, 1st Viscount Sumner''', {{postnominals|country=GBR|sep=,|GCB|PC}} (3 February 1859 – 24 May 1934) was a British lawyer and judge. He was appointed a judge of the [[High Court of Justice (King's Bench Division)]] in 1909, a [[Lord Justice of Appeal]] in 1912 and a [[Lord of Appeal in Ordinary]] (''Law Lord'') in 1913. Created a life peer as Baron Sumner in 1913, he was further honoured when he was granted a hereditary peerage as Viscount Sumner in 1927.

==Background and education==
Hamilton was born in [[Chorlton-upon-Medlock]], Lancashire,<ref name = "The Open University"/> the second son of Andrew Hamilton, an iron merchant of [[Manchester]],<ref name = "Debrett">{{cite book | last = Debrett | first = John | title = Debrett's House of Commons and Judicial Bench | publisher = Dean & Son, Ltd. | location = London | year = 1922 | editor = Arthur G. M. Hesilrige | pages = 346 }}</ref> and his wife, Frances, daughter of Joseph Sumner.<ref name = "Whitaker"/> He was baptised at the [[Church of St Wilfrid, Northenden]].<ref name="Lentin">{{cite book |last1=Lentin |first1=Antony |title=The Last Political Law Lord: Lord Sumner (1859-1934) |date=14 January 2009 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |isbn=978-1-4438-0381-6 |page=15 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d7YLBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA15 |access-date=14 March 2022 |language=en}}</ref>

Hamilton was educated at [[Manchester Grammar School]] and [[Balliol College, Oxford]].<ref name = "The Open University">{{cite web | url = http://www.open.ac.uk/platform/campus/your-subject/law/lord-sumner-vice-like-grip-legal-principles | title = The Open University - Lord Sumner: a 'vice-like grip of legal principles' | access-date = 8 July 2009 }}</ref> In 1883, he was [[Call to the bar|called to the bar]], [[Inner Temple]].<ref name = "Debrett"/> Hamilton was a Fellow of [[Magdalen College, Oxford]], for seven years from 1892 and was nominated an honorary fellow in 1909.<ref name = "Whitaker">{{cite book | publisher = Whitaker & Sons | title = Whitaker's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage, and Companionage | year = 1921 | location = London | pages = 535 }}</ref> He received an [[Doctor of Laws|Honorary Doctorate of Laws]] by the [[University of Edinburgh]] in 1913 and by the [[University of Manchester]] in 1919.<ref name = "Who's Who"/> One year later, Hamilton obtained also an [[Doctor of Civil Law|Honorary Doctorate of Civil Law]] by the [[University of Oxford]].<ref name = "Who's Who">{{cite book | title = Who is Who 1926 | publisher = Adam & Charles Black Ltd. | location = London | year = 1926 | pages = 2816 }}</ref>

==Judicial career==
Hamilton joined in the [[Northern Circuit]] and became a [[King's Counsel]] in 1901.<ref name = "Debrett"/> He was elected a standing counsel to the Oxford University in 1906, a post he held for the next three years.<ref name = "Who's Who"/> On his appointment as Judge of the [[High Court of Justice (King's Bench Division)]] in 1909, he was [[Knight Bachelor|knighted]] and invested a [[bencher]].<ref name = "Debrett"/> In 1912 he became a [[Lord Justice of Appeal]] and sworn of the [[Privy Council of the United Kingdom|Privy Council]].<ref name = "Debrett"/> Already in the following year, Hamilton became a [[Lord of Appeal in Ordinary]] and created a [[life peer]] as '''Baron Sumner''', of Ibstone, in the County of Buckingham.<ref>{{ London Gazette | issue = 28766 |page=7335 | date = 21 October 1913 }}</ref> He was further honoured, when on 31 January 1927, he created a [[hereditary peerage]] as '''Viscount Sumner''', of Ibstone, in the County of Buckingham.<ref>{{ London Gazette | issue = 33245 |page=722 | date = 4 February 1927 }}</ref> Hamilton retired as judge in 1930.<ref name = "The Open University"/>

==Further career==
In 1908, Hamilton was Inspector in the Swansea Education Dispute.<ref name = "Debrett"/> In the [[House of Lords]], he was chairman of the Working Classes Cost of Living, the British Cellulose Enquiry and the British and Foreign Legal Procedure committees.<ref name = "Debrett"/> Hamilton took part in the [[British Empire delegation|British Empire Delegation]] to the [[Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920)|Paris Peace Conference]] as a specialist on legal questions.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Historical Documents - Office of the Historian |url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1919Parisv03/d1 |access-date=2025-03-16 |website=history.state.gov}}</ref> He subsequently helped draft the [[Treaty of Versailles]] as part of the reparations commission, for which he was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the [[Order of the Bath]] (GCB) in the [[1920 Birthday Honours]].<ref name = "Debrett"/> In the next year, he chaired the Royal Commission on Compensation for Suffering and Damage by Enemy Action.<ref name = "Who's Who"/>

==Family and legacy==
In 1892, he married Maude Margaret Todd, the second daughter of Reverend John Wood Todd,<ref name = "Whitaker"/> a Baptist minister who with his wife founded what became [[Tudor Hall School, Banbury|Tudor Hall School]]. Hamilton's marriage was childless, and with Hamilton's death, the viscountcy became extinct.<ref name = "Whitaker"/> 

In 2009, a biography of Lord Sumner was published by Anthony Lentin.<ref name="Spectator Book Club">{{cite web | url = http://www.spectator.co.uk/books/3430001/wit-and-wisdom.thtml | title = Spectator Book Club - Review of "The Last Political Law Lord: Lord Sumner, 1859-1934" | access-date = 8 July 2009 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090315054618/http://www.spectator.co.uk/books/3430001/wit-and-wisdom.thtml | archive-date = 15 March 2009 }}</ref>

==Arms==
{{Infobox COA wide
|image = [[File:Coronet of a British Viscount.svg|centre|150px]][[File:Sumner Escutcheon.png|centre|200px]]
|escutcheon = Ermine a Chevron interlaced with another reversed between three Cinquefoils Gules
|crest = A Deer Hound's Head couped at the neck Argent charged with two Chevrons as in the Arms
|motto = Loi et loyaute <ref>{{Cite book|title=Debrett's Peerage |date=1921}}</ref>
}}

==Famous judgements==
* ''Bowman v The Secular Society'' (1917)
* ''Elder Dempster & Co v Paterson Zochonis & Co'' (1924)

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

==External links==
*{{hansard-contribs | mr-john-hamilton-2 | John Hamilton, 1st Viscount Sumner }}
*{{NPG name}}

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{{s-ttl| title  = [[Viscount Sumner]]
       | years  = 1927–1934 }}
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{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sumner, Viscount}}
[[Category:1859 births]]
[[Category:1934 deaths]]
[[Category:Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford]]
[[Category:English King's Counsel]]
[[Category:Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Knights Bachelor]]
[[Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath]]
[[Category:Law lords]]
[[Category:Members of the Inner Temple]]
[[Category:Members of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council]]
[[Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:People educated at Manchester Grammar School]]
[[Category:People from Chorlton-on-Medlock]]
[[Category:Queen's Bench Division judges]]
[[Category:20th-century King's Counsel]]
[[Category:Viscounts in the Peerage of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Life peers created by George V]]
[[Category:Viscounts created by George V]]