{{Short description|British judge (1880–1971)}} {{Use British English|date=June 2012}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2022}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = The Right Honourable | name = The Lord Oaksey | honorific_suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|DSO|TD|PC|DL}} | image = Lord-justice-lawrence-at-nuremberg-72-867.jpg | image_size = 240px | alt = | caption = Lawrence, c. 1946 | office = Lord of Appeal in Ordinary | term_start = 1947 | term_end = 1957 | predecessor = The Lord Macmillan | successor = The Lord Denning | birth_date = 2 December 1880 | birth_place = London, England | death_date = {{Death date and age|1971|08|28|1880|12|01|df=y}} | death_place = Oaksey, Wiltshire, England | birth_name = Geoffrey Lawrence | citizenship = United Kingdom | party = Crossbencher | spouse = | partner = <!--For those with a domestic partner and not married--> | relations = | children = | alma_mater = New College, Oxford | occupation = Barrister, judge | profession = Law <!--Military service--> | nickname = | allegiance = {{flagcountry|UK}} | branch = {{army|UK}} | service_years = | rank = | unit = Royal Artillery | commands = | battles = World War I *Western Front | mawards = }}
'''Geoffrey Lawrence, 3rd Baron Trevethin, 1st Baron Oaksey''', {{postnominals|country=GBR|DSO|TD|PC|DL|size=100%|sep=,}} (2 December 1880 – 28 August 1971) was the lead British judge during the Nuremberg trials after Second World War, and President of the International Military Tribunal.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite news |date=30 August 1971 |title=Lord Trevethin And Oaksey |pages=8 |work=The Times}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=30 August 1971 |title=Lord Oaksey, Nuremberg trials judge |pages=4 |work=The Daily Telegraph}}</ref>
==Biography== The Lawrence family came from Builth Wells in Radnorshire, Wales. Lawrence was born in London, England on 2 December 1880.<ref name=":0">{{Cite ODNB|title=Lawrence, Geoffrey, third Baron Trevethin and first Baron Oaksey|id=37661|last=Heuston|first=R. F. V.}}</ref> Geoffrey Lawrence was the youngest son of Lord Trevethin, briefly Lord Chief Justice of England in 1921–22. He attended Haileybury (where Clement Attlee was his junior) and New College, Oxford.
Lawrence was called to the Bar by the Inner Temple in 1906, and later joined the chambers of Sir Robert Finlay. The chambers specialised in taking appellate cases to the highest courts—the House of Lords for domestic cases, and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council for appeals from the Dominions and Colonies. Finlay came to rely on Lawrence, although for cases from Canada, Lawrence acted as lead counsel with Finlay as junior.
On 26 September 1914, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery Territorial Force (2nd East Anglian Brigade).<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=28973|page=9275|date=13 November 1914}}</ref> He was promoted to temporary lieutenant on 20 November 1914.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=29038|page=391|date=12 January 1915}}</ref> He served in France with the Royal Artillery, was mentioned in dispatches twice and as a major, was appointed to the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) in 1918.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=30450|supp=y|page=23|date=28 December 1917}}</ref> After the war he continued in membership of the Territorial Army until 1937.
On returning to the Bar Lawrence continued to take cases to the Privy Council. An interest in horses, inherited from his father, led to his appointment as Attorney for the Jockey Club from 1922. Soon after he was appointed as Recorder of Oxford, a part-time judgeship.
In 1927 Lawrence was made a King's Counsel and appointed Attorney General to the Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII). With this appointment came membership of the Council of the Duchy of Cornwall. Lawrence served in this capacity until, in 1932, he was appointed as a judge of the King's Bench Division, receiving the customary knighthood.
Two weeks after the Kristallnacht in 1938, Lawrence helped Cornelia Oberlander flee Nazi Germany.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Green|first=Penelope|date=9 June 2021|title=Cornelia Oberlander, a Farsighted Landscape Architect, Dies at 99|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/09/arts/design/cornelia-oberlander-dead-coronavirus.html|access-date=28 June 2021|archive-date=27 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210627175230/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/09/arts/design/cornelia-oberlander-dead-coronavirus.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
As a judge, Lawrence tended to keep out of the limelight by neither issuing sensational judgments nor drawing attention to himself. When Lord Goddard was chosen as a Law Lord, Lawrence succeeded him as a Lord Justice of Appeal in 1944.
=== Nuremberg trials === [[File:Judges at opening session of IMT.jpg|thumb|Sir Geoffrey Lawrence (left) and Francis Biddle (right) talking at the opening session of the Nuremberg trials.]] He was chosen as an experienced judge to be the lead to Norman Birkett in the British delegation to the Judicial group in the Nuremberg trials, though not (as some thought) arising out of his friendship with Attlee who was by then Prime Minister. He was then elected as President of all the Judges, more through the lack of enemies than any other factor. His conduct of the trials was praised by many of those involved who appreciated his striving to understand the relevance of each piece of evidence, and willingness to stop long-winded counsel.
Lawrence was not considered an exceptional legal talent but won acclaim for delivering a very clear judgment (largely penned by Birkett) that expressed the moral sense of the Court's conclusions. After the trials, Lawrence was raised to the peerage as '''Baron Oaksey''', of Oaksey in the County of Wilts., on 13 January 1947 (he also inherited the Barony of Trevethin from his brother on 25 June 1959 but was always known as Lord Oaksey).
As a senior legal figure in the House of Lords, he served as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary from 1947 and on the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council until he retired in 1957.
==Personal life== Lawrence married Marjorie Frances Alice (1898–1984) on 22 December 1921.<ref name=":0" /> She served in the ATS in the Second World War, gaining the OBE, and became a magistrate after the war. They had a country estate at Oaksey in Wiltshire, where Lawrence bred championship Guernsey cattle. They had three daughters and a son. Their son John was a well known amateur jockey and horse racing journalist; he too only used the title Lord Oaksey.
== Retirement and death == In retirement, Lord Oaksey, as he now was, dedicated himself to his farm, judging several county agricultural shows.<ref>{{Cite news|date=30 August 1971|title=Lord Oaksey, Presiding Judge at Nuremberg Trials, Is Dead|work=The New York Times|location=London, England|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/08/30/archives/lord-oaksey-presiding-judge-at-nuremberg-trials-is-dead.html|access-date=28 June 2021|archive-date=15 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210615082213/https://www.nytimes.com/1971/08/30/archives/lord-oaksey-presiding-judge-at-nuremberg-trials-is-dead.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
Lord Oaksey died on 28 August 1971 in Oaksey, Wiltshire, England.<ref name=":0" />
==Arms== {{Infobox COA wide |image = centre|150px centre|200px |escutcheon = Per chevron Argent and Gules two crosses raguly in chief of the last and a lamb in base holding with the dexter foreleg a banner and staff all of the first the banner charged with a cross couped Azure. |crest = A dragon's head erased Sable between two bugle horns counter-embowed Or. |supporters = On either side a dragon Sable winged and charged on the shoulder with a fasces Or. |motto = Pur Fel Dur<ref>{{cite book|title=Debrett's Peerage |date=1936}}</ref>}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
== External links ==
* {{NPG name|76592|Geoffrey Lawrence, 3rd Baron Trevethin and 1st Baron Oaksey}} {{Nuremberg Trial judges|Trevethin, Geoffrey Lawrence, 3rd Baron}}
{{S-start}} {{s-reg|uk}} {{s-bef| before = Charles Lawrence }} {{s-ttl| title = Baron Trevethin | years = 1959–1971 }} {{s-aft| rows = 2 | after = John Lawrence }} {{s-new|creation}} {{s-ttl| title = Baron Oaksey | years = 1947–1971 }} {{S-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oaksey, Geoffrey Lawrence, 1st Baron}} Category:1880 births Category:1971 deaths Category:Military personnel from London Geoffrey Lawrence, 1st Baron Oaksey Category:Nobility from Wiltshire Category:British people of Welsh descent Category:People educated at Summer Fields School Category:People educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College Category:Alumni of New College, Oxford Category:Companions of the Distinguished Service Order Lawrence, Geoffrey Category:Deputy lieutenants of Wiltshire Category:Royal Field Artillery officers Category:British Army personnel of World War I Category:British barristers Category:Members of the Inner Temple Category:English King's Counsel Category:20th-century King's Counsel Category:Queen's Bench Division judges Category:Law lords Category:Members of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Category:Judges of the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg Category:British judges of international courts and tribunals 3 Category:Barons created by George VI Category:Younger sons of barons Category:Territorial Force officers