Frank Soskice, Baron Stow Hill

The Right Honourable The Lord Stow Hill PC QC
Lord Privy Seal
In office 23 December 1965 – 6 April 1966
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Frank Pakenham
Succeeded by	Frank Pakenham
Home Secretary
In office 18 October 1964 – 23 December 1965
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Henry Brooke
Succeeded by	Roy Jenkins
Shadow Home Secretary
In office 15 February 1963 – 18 October 1964
Leader	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	George Brown
Succeeded by	Edward Boyle
Attorney General for England and Wales
In office 24 April 1951 – 26 October 1951
Prime Minister	Clement Attlee
Preceded by	Sir Hartley Shawcross
Succeeded by	Sir Lionel Heald
Solicitor General for England and Wales
In office 4 August 1945 – 24 April 1951
Prime Minister	Clement Attlee
Preceded by	Sir Walter Monckton
Succeeded by	Sir Lynn Ungoed-Thomas
Member of Parliament for Newport
In office 6 July 1956 – 31 March 1966
Preceded by	Peter Freeman
Succeeded by	Roy Hughes
Member of Parliament for Sheffield Neepsend
In office 23 February 1950 – 26 May 1955
Preceded by	Harry Morris
Succeeded by	Constituency abolished
Member of Parliament for Birkenhead East
In office 5 July 1945 – 23 February 1950
Preceded by	Henry Graham White
Succeeded by	Constituency abolished
Personal details
Born	23 July 1902
Died	1 January 1979 (aged 76)
Nationality	British
Political party	Labour
Alma mater	Balliol College, Oxford

Frank Soskice, Baron Stow Hill PC QC (23 July 1902 – 1 January 1979) was a British lawyer and Labour Party politician.

Background and education

Soskice's father was the exiled Russian revolutionary journalist David Soskice; his mother was the granddaughter of artist Ford Madox Brown, niece of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and sister of Ford Madox Ford. Soskice was educated at the Froebel Demonstration School, St Paul's School, London, and Balliol College, Oxford. He studied law and was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1926. He served in the British Army with the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry during World War II.^[1]

Political career

Following the war, he was elected to parliament as a Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Birkenhead East in the 1945 general election, and became Solicitor General,^[2] receiving the customary knighthood,^[3] in the government of Clement Attlee, serving in that office throughout Attlee's government. He was also, briefly, UK delegate to the United Nations General Assembly. As Solicitor General, Soskice was viewed as an important advocate for the government in the House of Commons. His constituency was abolished in the 1950 election, when he unsuccessfully fought Bebington, but he was soon returned to the House of Commons at a by-election in the Sheffield Neepsend constituency, where the sitting MP Harry Morris stood down to make way for Soskice. In April 1951, he became Attorney General.

In 1952, Soskice joined the shadow cabinet, and his fortunes rose in 1955 with the election of his close ally Hugh Gaitskell as party leader, although he continued his legal practice as well. His Sheffield Neepsend constituency was abolished for the 1955 general election, but in 1956 he won a by-election in the Newport seat in Monmouthshire that he would hold until he retired.

When Labour returned to government in 1964 under Harold Wilson, Soskice became Home Secretary. In this office he did not impress Wilson – he was in poor health, and he botched the response to an electoral boundary change dispute in Northamptonshire and accepted weakening amendments to the Race Relations Act of 1965.

In December 1965, Soskice was relieved of his Home Office responsibilities and made Lord Privy Seal. He had, though, ensured Government support for Sydney Silverman's Private Members Bill, passed on 28 October 1965, which suspended the death penalty in the United Kingdom for five years (except for treason). This reform is sometimes erroneously included with the Jenkins reforms which followed. In fact when the death penalty for murder was finally abolished in 1969,^[4] James Callaghan was Home Secretary.

In 1966, Soskice retired, and was created a life peer as Baron Stow Hill, of Newport in the County of Monmouth on 7 June 1966.^[5] Stow Hill is a steep hill in Newport, which runs from the city centre up to St. Woolos Cathedral.

References

1. The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 35040. p. 247. 10 January 1941.
2. The London Gazette: no. 37222. p. 4135. 14 August 1945.
3. The London Gazette: no. 37243. p. 4345. 28 August 1945.
4. The abolition of hanging in Britain
5. The London Gazette: no. 44014. p. 6598. 7 June 1966.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Frank Soskice