Wilfred Greene, 1st Baron Greene

Last updated
The Right Honourable
The Lord Greene
OBE MC PC
Master of the Rolls
In office
26 April 1937 –1 June 1949
Preceded by The Lord Wright
Succeeded by The Lord Evershed
Personal details
BornWilfred Arthur Greene
30 December 1883
Beckenham, Kent
Died16 April 1952 (1952-04-17) (aged 68)
Dorking, Surrey
Nationality British
Spouse(s) Nancy Wright
Alma mater Christ Church, Oxford
Profession Barrister, judge

Wilfred Arthur Greene, 1st Baron Greene OBE MC PC (30 December 1883 – 16 April 1952) was a British lawyer and judge, noted for creating two crucial principles of administrative law, the Wednesbury doctrine and the Carltona doctrine.

Military Cross third-level military decoration of the British Armed Forces, Commonwealth officers

The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level military decoration awarded to officers and other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries.

Privy Council of the United Kingdom Formal body of advisers to the sovereign in the United Kingdom

Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council of the United Kingdom or just the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. Its membership mainly comprises senior politicians who are current or former members of either the House of Commons or the House of Lords.

United Kingdom Country in Europe

The United Kingdom (UK), officially the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, is a sovereign country located off the north-western coast of the European mainland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state, the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south and the Celtic Sea to the south-west, giving it the 12th-longest coastline in the world. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland. With an area of 242,500 square kilometres (93,600 sq mi), the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world. It is also the 22nd-most populous country, with an estimated 66.0 million inhabitants in 2017.

Contents

Early life, education and military service

Greene was born in Beckenham, Kent, son of Arthur Werguelin Greene, a solicitor, and his wife Katherine Agnes Fooke. He was educated at Westminster School; he was one of the first Roman Catholic pupils to be admitted to the School. He graduated from Christ Church, Oxford in 1906 with a BA; he had the reputation of being "a formidable scholar". [1] He was admitted to Inner Temple in 1908 entitled to practice as a Barrister-at-Law. He graduated from Christ Church, Oxford in 1912 with an Oxbridge MA. He gained the rank of Captain in the service of the 2/1st Battalion,Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. He fought in the First World War between 1914 and 1918. He was decorated with the award of the MC in 1918. He was decorated with the award of Cavaliere, Order of the Crown of Italy. He was decorated with the award of Croix de guerre. He was invested with an OBE in 1919.

Beckenham area in the London Borough of Bromley

Beckenham is a post town and district of London in the London Borough of Bromley, England. It borders Beckenham Place Park and Bellingham in the London Borough of Lewisham and is centred 8.4 miles (13.5 km) south east of Charing Cross. Historically part of Kent, Beckenham was, until the coming of the railway in 1857, a small village, with most of its land being rural and private parkland. John Cator and his family began the building of villas which led to a rapid increase in population, between 1850 and 1900, from 2,000 to 26,000. Housing and population growth has continued at a lesser pace since 1900.

Kent County of England

Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west. The county also shares borders with Essex along the estuary of the River Thames, and with the French department of Pas-de-Calais through the Channel Tunnel. The county town is Maidstone.

Westminster School school in Westminster, London, England

Westminster School is an independent day and boarding school in London, England, located within the precincts of Westminster Abbey. With origins before the 12th century, the educational tradition of Westminster probably dates back as far as 960, in line with the Abbey's history. Boys are admitted to the Under School at age seven and to the senior school at age thirteen; girls are admitted at age sixteen into the Sixth Form. The school has around 750 pupils; around a quarter are boarders, most of whom go home at weekends, after Saturday morning school. The school motto, Dat Deus Incrementum, is taken from the New Testament, specifically 1 Corinthians 3:6.

Greene was a Lord Justice of Appeal from 1935 to 1937. He served as Master of the Rolls between 1937 and 1949, and subsequently became a Law Lord. On 16 July 1941 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Greene, of Holmbury St Mary in the County of Surrey. [2] The title became extinct on his death in April 1952, aged 68. He married Nancy Wright in 1909.

The Keeper or Master of the Rolls and Records of the Chancery of England, known as the Master of the Rolls, is the second-most senior judge in England and Wales after the Lord Chief Justice, and serves as President of the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal and Head of Civil Justice. The position dates from at least 1286, although it is believed that the office probably existed earlier than that.

Greene in his time was the acknowledged master of administrative law – indeed it is impossible to exaggerate his contribution to the development of this field of law. Despite some refinements, the Wednesbury doctrine of reasonableness [3] remains the benchmark by which courts review decisions of public bodies. Of even greater significance was his enunciation of the Carltona doctrine in Carltona Ltd. v. Commissioners of Public Works [1943] 2 All E.R. 560 that "the duties imposed upon Ministers and the powers given to Ministers are normally exercised under the authority of the Minister by responsible officials of the Department". It may fairly be said that the Carltona doctrine is the legal underpinning for the operation of the civil service in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

The Carltona doctrine expresses the idea that, in United Kingdom law, the acts of government departmental officials are synonymous with the actions of the minister in charge of that department. The point was established in Carltona Ltd v Commissioners of Works.

In 1941 he chaired a Board of Inquiry into pay in the mining industry, prompted by a series of strikes, and at the urging of Harold Wilson (the future Prime Minister, then serving as a wartime civil servant), who served as secretary to the inquiry, recommended both a pay rise and the establishment of a minimum wage for the industry. [4] Greene, who was not normally thought of as a "political" judge, is said to have remarked cheerfully that his report was the first step towards nationalisation of the coal mines. [5]

Mining The extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth

Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef or placer deposit. These deposits form a mineralized package that is of economic interest to the miner.

Harold Wilson former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, was a British Labour politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1964 to 1970 and 1974 to 1976.

Minimum wage lowest wage which can be paid legally in a state for working

A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their workers—the price floor below which workers may not sell their labor. Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation by the end of the 20th century.

Joldwynds

Greene acquired Joldwynds, a country house in Holmbury St Mary designed by Arts and Crafts architect Philip Webb, but demolished it in 1930. He commissioned Oliver Hill to design a new Joldwynds in modernist style, completed in 1932. He also commissioned a house to a design by the modernist Tecton Group, which was built in the grounds of Joldwynds in 1939. [6]

Joldwynds is a modernist style house in Holmbury St Mary, Surrey, England, designed by architect Oliver Hill for Wilfred Greene, 1st Baron Greene. Completed in 1932, it is a Grade II listed building.

Holmbury St Mary village in United Kingdom

Holmbury St. Mary is a village in Surrey, England centred on shallow upper slopes of the Greensand Ridge. Its developed area is clustered 4.5 miles (7 km) southwest of Dorking and 8 miles (13 km) southeast of Guildford. Most of the village is in the borough of Guildford, within Shere civil parish. Much of the east side of the village street is in the district of Mole Valley, within Abinger civil parish.

Arts and Crafts movement international design movement

The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the decorative and fine arts that began in Britain and flourished in Europe and America between about 1880 and 1920, emerging in Japan in the 1920s as the Mingei movement. It stood for traditional craftsmanship using simple forms, and often used medieval, romantic, or folk styles of decoration. It advocated economic and social reform and was essentially anti-industrial. It had a strong influence on the arts in Europe until it was displaced by Modernism in the 1930s, and its influence continued among craft makers, designers, and town planners long afterwards.

Honours

Cases

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References

  1. ↑ Ziegler, Philip, Harold Wilson Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1993 p.33
  2. ↑ "No. 35225". The London Gazette . 22 July 1941. p. 4213.
  3. ↑ [1948] 1 K.B. 223
  4. ↑ Ziegler pp.33-4
  5. ↑ Ziegler p.34
  6. ↑ Stamp, Gavin (2010). Lost Victorian Britain: How the Twentieth Century Destroyed the Nineteenth Century's Architectural Masterpieces. London: Aurum Press. pp. 184–185. ISBN   978-1-84513-532-4.
  7. ↑ "No. 34214". The London Gazette . 29 October 1935. p. 6784.
  8. ↑ "No. 34214". The London Gazette . 20 October 1935. p. 6777.
Legal offices
Preceded by
The Lord Wright 		Master of the Rolls
1937–1949		Succeeded by
Sir Raymond Evershed
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation Baron Greene
1941–1952		Extinct

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