Rufus Daniel Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading, (10 October 1860 – 30 December 1935), known as The Earl of Reading from 1917 to 1926, was a British Liberal politician and judge, who served as Lord Chief Justice of England, Viceroy of India, and Foreign Secretary, the last Liberal to hold that post. The second practising Jew to be a member of the British cabinet (the first being Herbert Samuel, who was also a member of H. H. Asquith's government), Isaacs was the first Jew to be Lord Chief Justice, and the first, and as yet, only British Jew to be raised to a marquessate.
Biography
Rufus Isaacs was born at 3 Bury Street, in the parish of St Mary Axe, London, the son of a Jewish fruit importer at Spitalfields. He was educated at University College School and then entered the family business at the age of 15. In 1876–77 he served as a ship's boy and later worked as a jobber on the stock-exchange from 1880 to 1884. In 1887 he married Alice Edith Cohen, who suffered from a chronic physical disability and died of cancer in 1930, after over 40 years of marriage. The Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar is named after her.
He then married Stella Charnaud, the first Lady Reading's secretary. His second marriage lasted until his own death in 1935. After his death Stella Isaacs was made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1941, promoted to Dame Grand Cross (GBE) in 1944, and then in 1958 made a life peeress as Baroness Swanborough, of Swanborough in the County of Sussex.
Legal career
Isaacs was admitted as a student to the Middle Temple in 1885, and was called to the Bar in 1887. He set up his own chambers at 1 Garden Court, Temple, and was very successful; within five years he was able to repay his creditors, and after twenty years at the bar earned the enormous sum of £30,000 per year. He was appointed a Queen's Counsel in 1898, after only ten and half years at the junior bar.
Isaacs mainly practised in the Commercial Court, with occasional appearance in the divorce court or at the Old Bailey. Among his famous cases were the defence of The Star against a charge of libel by Arthur Chamberlain (at the behest of his brother Joseph), the Taff Vale case (where he appeared for the union), the 1903 Bayliss v. Coleridge libel suit, the prosecution of the fraudster Whitaker Wright, the defence of Sir Edward Russell on a charge of criminal libel, and that of Robert Sievier on a charge of blackmail.
As a barrister, Isaacs was a hard worker, rising early to prepare his cases, although he never worked after dinner. His advocacy was calm and forensic, and he was renowned for his style of cross-examination.
Political career
Having earlier contested unsuccessfully North Kensington in 1900, Isaacs entered the House of Commons as the Liberal Party member of Parliament (MP) for Reading at the by-election on 6 August 1904, a seat he held for nine years until 1913.
In 1910, he was appointed solicitor general in the government of H. H. Asquith and received the customary knighthood. After six months, he was appointed attorney general. On the resignation of Lord Loreburn as Lord Chancellor in 1912, Isaacs had expected to succeed him, but was passed over in favour of Lord Haldane. To appease him, Asquith invited Isaacs to join the Cabinet; he was the first attorney general to sit in the Cabinet.
As law officer, Isaacs handled many high-profile cases. As solicitor general, he appeared for the Admiralty in the George Archer-Shee case. As attorney general, he led the prosecutions of Edward Mylius for criminal libel against King George V (and was appointed KCVO shortly after), of poisoner Frederick Seddon (the only murder trial Isaacs ever took part in), and of suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst. He also represented the Board of Trade at the inquiry into the sinking of the RMS Titanic.
In addition, he helped to pilot through the Commons several pieces of key legislation, including the Parliament Act 1911, the Official Secrets Act 1911, the National Insurance Act 1911, the Trade Union Act 1913, and the Government of Ireland Act 1914. He was appointed to the Privy Council in the 1911 Coronation Honours.
Marconi scandal
Isaacs was one of several high-ranking members of the Liberal government accused of involvement in the Marconi scandal. An article published in Le Matin on 14 February 1913 alleged corruption in the award of a government contract to the Marconi Company and insider trading in Marconi's shares, implicating a number of sitting government ministers, including Lloyd George, the chancellor of the Exchequer; Isaacs, then attorney general; Herbert Samuel, postmaster general; and the treasurer of the Liberal Party, Lord Murray.