{{Short description|American judge (1874–1955)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=September 2022}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = The Honorable | name = Harry Manser | honorific_suffix = | image = | alt = | caption = | office = Justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court | term_start = July 18, 1935 | term_end = March 20, 1946 | appointer = Louis J. Brann | predecessor = Charles J. Dunn | successor = Raymond Fellows | birth_date = {{birth date|1874|4|20}} | birth_place = Hever, Kent, England | death_date = {{death date and age|1955|2|20|1874|4|20}} | death_place = Auburn, Maine, U.S. | education = Lewiston High School | spouse = Gladys M. Stover | children = 3 | profession = Judge, Lawyer }}
'''Harry Manser''' (April 20, 1874 – February 20, 1955),<ref name="Cleaves"/><ref name="Globe Obit">"[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/109340192/obituary-for-harry-manser-aged-80/ Harry Manser, 80, Retired Justice, Dies in Auburn, Me.]", ''The Boston Globe'' (February 21, 1955), p. 18.</ref> of Auburn, Maine, was a justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court from July 18, 1935, until his retirement on March 20, 1946,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://legislature.maine.gov/lawlibrary/maine-supreme-court-chief-and-associate-justices/9284/|title=Maine Supreme Court Chief and Associate Justices|publisher=Maine State Legislature|access-date=December 24, 2019}}</ref> remaining in active senior service until his death in 1955.
==Early life, education, and career== Born Hever, Kent, England to William and Eliza (Canham) Manser,<ref name="Cleaves">{{cite web|url=http://www.cleaves.org/sjcbios1.htm|title=The Supreme Judicial Court of the State of Maine, 1820 to 2009|publisher=Nathan & Henry B. Cleaves Law Library|access-date=December 22, 2019}}</ref> Manser received his early education in London until the age of thirteen, when his mother brought him and his two sisters to the United States.<ref name="Globe Obit"/><ref name="Cleaves"/> He thereafter attended the public schools in Maine, graduating from Lewiston High School in 1893.<ref name="Globe Obit"/><ref name="Cleaves"/>
Due to his "experience in the art of shorthand",<ref name="Cleaves"/> Manser was hired by the Lewiston firm of Frye, Cotton & White, where he read law.<ref name="Globe Obit"/><ref name="Cleaves"/> Manser was naturalized as a U.S. citizen on his 21st birthday,<ref name="Globe Obit"/> and gained admission to the bar in Androscoggin County, Maine, the following year, in September 1896. He then served as Lewiston City Solicitor beginning in 1897, though sources vary as to when that service ended.<ref name="Globe Obit"/><ref name="Cleaves"/> He "opened his own legal practice in Lewiston" in 1903,<ref name="Cleaves"/> also serving as "a part-time judge in Auburn Municipal Court from 1903 to 1911 and from 1918 to 1926", and as Auburn City Solicitor from 1911 to 1912.<ref name="Globe Obit"/>
==Judicial service== On April 1, 1928, Governor Ralph Owen Brewster appointed Manser to the Maine Superior Court,<ref name="Globe Obit"/><ref name="Cleaves"/> and on July 18, 1935, Democratic Governor Louis J. Brann appointed the Republican Manser as an Associate Justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.<ref name="Globe Obit"/><ref name="Cleaves"/>
In 1937 Manser was at "the center of a wide controversy for jailing seven labor leaders during a shoe strike". Manser granted a motion seeking a temporary injunction against the strike, sentencing the union leaders to six months in jail for contempt when the strike continued. Organized labor advocates criticized the sentences as "deliberate violations of the rights of free speech and assembly", while Manser countered that "the penalty must be such as to promulgate and endeavor to teach respect for the law". The union leaders were released after two months, and brought their cases went to the full court, which overruled Manser.<ref name="Globe Obit"/>
==Personal life and death== Manser married Gladys M. Stover, with whom he had three daughters. Gladys died shortly before Manser.<ref name="Globe Obit"/>
Manser died at his home in Auburn, Maine, at the age of 80, following a lengthy illness.<ref name="Globe Obit"/>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{s-start}} {{s-off}} {{succession box |title=Justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court |before=Charles J. Dunn |after=Raymond Fellows |years=1935–1946}} {{s-end}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Manser, Harry}} Category:1874 births Category:1955 deaths Category:People from Hever, Kent Category:Lewiston High School (Maine) alumni Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States Category:U.S. state supreme court judges admitted to the practice of law by reading law Category:Justices of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court Category:Maine Republicans Category:British emigrants to the United States Category:Justices of the Maine Superior Court