{{Short description|British lawyer and politician}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2021}} {{infobox person | honorific_prefix = | name = {{nowrap|Christopher Nyholm Shawcross}} | honorific_suffix = QC | image = | caption = | birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1905|6|20}} | birth_place = | death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|1973|8|18|1905|6|20}} | death_place = {{nowrap|Haywards Heath, Sussex, England}} | resting_place = | education = Dulwich College | alma_mater = University College, Oxford | father = {{nowrap|John Shawcross}} | mother = Hilda Constance Asser | spouse = {{marriage|Doreen Burrows|1931|1949|end=divorced}}<br>{{marriage|Maridel Chance|1949}} | children = 2 | occupation = {{nowrap|Lawyer & politician}} | relatives = Hartley Shawcross (brother) | module = {{infobox military person | embed = yes | allegiance = {{flag|United Kingdom}} | branch = {{navy|United Kingdom}} | service_years = 1939-45 | unit = Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve | rank = Commander | battles = World War II }} }}
'''Christopher Nyholm Shawcross,''' QC (20 June 1905 – 18 August 1973) was a British lawyer and Labour politician.
He was the younger son of John Shawcross and Hilda Constance Asser.<ref>Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition, Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 1999, p. 2594</ref> He was educated at Dulwich College and University College, Oxford, before going on to study law at Gray's Inn.<ref name=obit>''Obituary: Mr C. N. Shawcross'', The Times, 21 August 1973, p.14</ref>
He was called to the bar in 1931 and practised at the Common Law Bar in London and in the Midland Circuit.<ref name=obit/> With the outbreak of the Second World War, Shawcross joined the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve, where he reached the rank of Commander.<ref>Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition, Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 1999, p. 2594</ref><ref name=obit/>
At the 1945 general election he was returned as Labour MP for Widnes. He was a Europhile parliamentarian, serving on the Parliamentary Committee on the Channel Tunnel, the all party group for European Union, and the British Council of the European Movement. He retired from politics in 1950, becoming Recorder of Nottingham.<ref name=obit/>
He became a King's Counsel in 1949, and pursued a distinguished legal career. In particular he worked in new areas of law, producing books on motor insurance and air law.<ref name=obit/><ref>C N Shawcross, ''The Law of Motor Insurance'', London, 1935</ref><ref>Christopher N Shawcross and others, ''Shawcross and Beaumont on Air Law'', London, 1951</ref> he retired from the Bar in 1961, but returned to practice in the South Eastern Circuit in 1969.
Christopher Shawcross married twice. His 1931 marriage to Doreen Burrows was dissolved in 1949, and he married Maridel Chance in the same year and they had two children.<ref>Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition, Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 1999, p. 2594</ref><ref name=obit/> He was the younger brother of Hartley Shawcross, also a distinguished lawyer and Labour politician.
He died at his home in Haywards Heath, Sussex, aged 68.<ref name=obit/>
==References== {{Rayment|date=February 2012}} {{Reflist}}
== External links == * {{Hansard-contribs | mr-christopher-shawcross | Christopher Shawcross}}
{{s-start}} {{s-par|uk}} {{succession box | title = Member of Parliament for Widnes | years = 1945–1950 | before = Richard Pilkington | after = James MacColl }} {{s-end}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Shawcross, Christopher N}} Category:1905 births Category:1973 deaths Category:Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Category:UK MPs 1945–1950 Category:People educated at Dulwich College Category:Alumni of University College, Oxford Category:Members of Gray's Inn Category:Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve personnel of World War II Category:British barristers Category:20th-century King's Counsel Category:British King's Counsel