Harold Derbyshire
{{Infobox judge
| name = Sir Harold Derbyshire
| image = Sir Harold Derbyshire.jpg
| caption = Derbyshire in 1928
| office = Chief Justice of Bengal
| term_start = 1934
| term_end = 1946
| honorific_suffix = MC, QC
}}
{{Short description|English barrister, judge and politician (1886–1972)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2015}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2015}}
Sir Harold Derbyshire {{post-nominals|country=GBR|MC|QC}} (25 December 1886 – 14 September 1972) was an English barrister, judge and Liberal Party politician.
Background and education
Derbyshire was born in Cherry Tree, Blackburn, Lancashire, England, the son of James Derbyshire and Elizabeth Kate Chew. He was educated at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Blackburn, and then on a scholarship at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he studied Natural Sciences. He afterwards gained an LLB.
In 1915 he married Dorothea Alice Taylor in Blackburn.The Liberal Year Book of 1929
Legal career
Derbyshire was admitted to Gray's Inn, where he was called to the Bar in 1911. He practised on the Northern Circuit and was made a KC in 1928. He was elected a Bencher of Gray's Inn in 1931. From 1933-34 he served as Judge of Appeal in the Isle of Man. From 1934 to 1946 he was Chief Justice at the High Court of Calcutta. In 1948 he was the Inn's Treasurer.
He retired from public life in 1950.
Military service
Derbyshire served with distinction during World War I in the Royal Artillery in France and Belgium, and was awarded the MC in the 1918 Birthday Honours.
Political service
In the 1923 General Election he contested the seat of Clitheroe and in the 1929 General Election that of Royton, standing for the Liberal Party, but was unsuccessful on both occasions.
=Electoral record=
{{Election box begin |
|title=General election 1923: Clitheroe British Parliamentary Election Results 1918–1949, FWS Craig
}}
{{Election box candidate with party link|
|party = Unionist Party (UK)
|candidate = William Brass
|votes = 12,998
|percentage = 42.9
|change = −11.8
}}
{{Election box candidate with party link|
|party = Labour Party (UK)
|candidate = Alfred Davies
|votes = 11,469
|percentage = 37.9
|change = −7.4
}}
{{Election box candidate with party link|
|party = Liberal Party (UK)
|candidate = Harold Derbyshire
|votes = 5,810
|percentage = 19.2
|change = n/a
}}
{{Election box majority|
|votes = 1,529
|percentage = 5.0
|change = −4.4
}}
{{Election box turnout|
|votes = 30,277
|percentage = 88.2
|change = +2.9
}}
{{Election box registered electors|
|reg. electors = 34,329
}}
{{Election box hold with party link|
|winner = Unionist Party (UK)
|swing = −2.2
}}
{{Election box end}}
{{Election box begin |
|title=General election 1929: Royton
}}
{{Election box candidate with party link|
|party = Unionist Party (UK)
|candidate = Arthur Vernon Davies
|votes = 15,051
|percentage = 38.4
|change = −5.6
}}
{{Election box candidate with party link|
|party = Liberal Party (UK)
|candidate = Harold Derbyshire
|votes = 13,347
|percentage = 34.1
|change = −2.3
}}
{{Election box candidate with party link|
|party = Labour Party (UK)
|candidate = Albert Ernest Wood
|votes = 10,763
|percentage = 27.5
|change = +7.9
}}
{{Election box majority|
|votes = 1,704
|percentage = 4.3
|change = −3.3
}}
{{Election box turnout|
|votes = 39,161
|percentage = 82.9
|change = −3.4
}}
{{Election box registered electors|
|reg. electors = 47,266
}}
{{Election box hold with party link|
|winner = Unionist Party (UK)
|swing = −1.7
}}
{{Election box end}}
Sources
- Who Was Who, vol. 7: 1971-80. A & C Black and Oxford University Press
References
{{Reflist}}
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{{succession box | before=Sir George Claus Rankin | title=Chief Justice of Bengal | years=1934–1946 | after=Sir Arthur Trevor Harries}}
{{s-end}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Derbyshire, Harold}}
Category:Members of Gray's Inn
Category:20th-century English judges
Category:Chief justices of the Calcutta High Court
Category:People from Blackburn
Category:Alumni of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
Category:Recipients of the Military Cross
Category:People educated at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Blackburn
Category:Liberal Party (UK) parliamentary candidates
Category:Military personnel from Lancashire