Sir David Patrick Maxwell Fyfe


(1st Earl of Kilmuir)

1900 - 1967

Politician and Lawyer. Born in Aberdeen, he was educated at George Watson's College, Edinburgh and the University of Oxford. In 1934, Maxwell Fyfe became the youngest King's Council for 250 years. He was Deputy Chief Prosecutor of Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials following World War II and considerably responsible for bring about their convictions. He went on to help draft the European Convention on Human Rights.

Maxwell Fyfe became a Member of Parliament (1935), and served as Home Secretary (1951) and Lord Chancellor (1954). As Home Secretary he was criticised for not commuting the death sentence on Derek Bentley, who was hanged for murder. Bentley's case was later re-examined and he was granted a posthumous pardon.

Maxwell Fyfe was knighted in 1942 and raised to the peerage in 1954 as Viscount Kilmuir. He was created Earl of Kilmuir and Baron Fyfe of Dornoch in 1962.


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