{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2016}} {{Use British English|date=August 2016}} '''Sir John Edward Singleton''' (18 January 1885 – 6 January 1957) was a British politician and judge.
== Early life and career == Singleton was born in St Michael's on Wyre, Lancashire, and was educated at Lancaster Royal Grammar School<ref>{{Cite book |last=Craddock |first=Jeremy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cl43zwEACAAJ |title=The Jigsaw Murders: The True Story of the Ruxton Killings and the Birth of Modern Forensics |date=2022 |publisher=History Press |isbn=978-1-80399-034-7 |language=en}}</ref> and Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he studied Law, obtaining a third-class degree. He was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1906, and joined the Northern Circuit. During World War I he served in the Royal Field Artillery, achieving the rank of captain. He was also mentioned in dispatches. He became a King's Counsel in 1922.
In the 1922 general election, he was elected to the House of Commons for Lancaster as a Conservative, but was unseated in the 1923 general election by the Liberal candidate. After his defeat, he returned to the bar; he was Judge of Appeal in the Isle of Man between 1928 and 1932, and Recorder of Preston between 1928 and 1934.<ref name=":0">{{Cite ODNB|id=36111|title=Singleton, Sir John Edward (1885–1957)|last=Hodson|authorlink=Charles Hodson, Baron Hodson|first2=Alec|last2=Samuels}}</ref>
== Judicial career == Singleton was appointed a judge of the King's Bench Division of the High Court in 1934, receiving the customary knighthood.<ref name=":0" /> In 1936, he presided over the murder trial of Buck Ruxton<ref>{{Cite book |last=Craddock |first=Jeremy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cl43zwEACAAJ |title=The Jigsaw Murders: The True Story of the Ruxton Killings and the Birth of Modern Forensics |date=2022 |publisher=History Press |isbn=978-1-80399-034-7 |language=en}}</ref> at the Manchester Assizes. The prosecutor on that case was Joseph Cooksey Jackson, who had also attended Lancaster Royal Grammar School.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Craddock |first=Jeremy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cl43zwEACAAJ |title=The Jigsaw Murders: The True Story of the Ruxton Killings and the Birth of Modern Forensics |date=2022 |publisher=History Press |isbn=978-1-80399-034-7 |language=en}}</ref>
During World War II, he was asked by the Cabinet to report on the effectiveness of the Royal Air Force's strategic bombing campaign.
In 1946, he served as the British chairman of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry on Mandatory Palestine. Richard Crossman, who also served on the Committee, described Singleton as being 'intensely loyal to what he conceived to be the interests of the [British] government'.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The British Empire in the Middle East, 1945-1951: Arab Nationalism, the United States, and Postwar Imperialism|last=Louis|first=Wm. Roger|publisher=Clarendon Press|year=1984|location=Oxford|pages=399|author-link=Wm. Roger Louis}}</ref> An anti-Zionist, Singleton favoured the disarming of the Hagenah and the curtailment of the functions of the Jewish Agency.
In 1948, Singleton was appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal, and was sworn into the Privy Council. He served on the Court of Appeal until his death in 1957.<ref name=":0" />
== Decisions == * ''Hartog v Colin & Shields'' [1939] 3 All ER 566
== References == <references />
==Cited works and further reading== * {{cite book | first=R. H. | last=Blundell |author2=Wilson; G. Haswell | editor= James H. Hodge | year=1950 | title=Famous Trials III | publisher=Penguin Books|location=Middlesex | pages=162–236|isbn= 978-0-140-00787-9|ref={{harvid|Blundell|Haswell|Hodge|1950}}}} * {{cite book| last1 = Craddock| first1 = Jeremy| title = The Jigsaw Murders: The True Story of the Ruxton Killings and the Birth of Modern Forensics| year = 2022|orig-date=2021| publisher = The History Press | location = Cheltenham| isbn = 978-0-750-99767-6|ref={{harvid|Craddock|2022}}}}
== External links == * {{Hansard-contribs|mr-john-singleton|John Singleton}} * {{NPG name|141207|Sir John Edward Singleton}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Singleton, John Edward}} Category:1885 births Category:1957 deaths Category:UK MPs 1922–1923 Category:Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Category:Lord justices of appeal Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Category:English King's Counsel Category:Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge Category:Knights Bachelor Category:Members of the Inner Temple Category:Queen's Bench Division judges Category:20th-century English lawyers