Frederic Herbert Maugham, 1st Viscount Maugham, was a British barrister and judge who briefly served as Lord Chancellor from March 1938 until September 1939.
Maugham was called to the bar by Lincoln's Inn in 1890, and embarked upon a legal career, becoming a King's Counsel in 1913. In 1922, he briefly considered entering politics as a ConservativeMember of Parliament but could not find a seat. He was a Judge of the High Court of Justice from 1928 to 1934 and a Lord Justice of Appeal from 1934 to 1935. He was knighted in 1928 and sworn of the Privy Council in 1934. The following year he became a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, was created a life peer on 7 October 1935 and entered the House of Lords as Baron Maugham, of Hartfield in the County of Sussex. Three years later he was offered the position of Lord Chancellor by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. Such was Maugham's lack of political experience that Chamberlain and he had never met before. He was offered the role because there were very few obvious available choices amongst the ranks of parliamentary supporters of the National Government to replace the ailing Lord Hailsham—for the obvious successor, Sir Thomas Inskip, could not be moved from the position of Minister for Coordination of Defence. As Maugham was already 71 years old it was widely expected that he would prove to be a mere stop-gap appointment, to be succeeded by Inskip as soon as it was possible for the latter to leave Defence. However, by the time this occurred in early 1939, Chamberlain was sufficiently impressed with Maugham's work to offer to retain him, whilst allowing Inskip the opportunity to defer choosing between becoming Lord Chancellor and remaining in the House of Commons with the possibility of becoming Prime Minister and intended to make a change at the next general election, which was expected to take place that year. However, war intervened and Chamberlain carried out a full-scale reconstruction of his government. As part of this Maugham was allowed to retire, to be finally succeeded by Inskip, who was ennobled as Viscount Caldecote. Maugham took the retirement honour, of being created Viscount Maugham, of Hartfield in the County of Sussex on 22 September 1939, which, unlike his barony, was hereditary. He again served as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary until 1941.
Family
Maugham married Helen Mary, daughter of Sir Robert Romer, in 1896. They had four children:
The Hon. Kate Mary Maugham
The Hon. Edith Honor Maugham
The Hon. Diana Julia Maugham
Robert Cecil Romer Maugham, 2nd Viscount. Known as Robin Maugham. He wrote about his father in two volumes of autobiography, Escape from the Shadows and Search for Nirvana.
Lady Maugham died in October 1950, aged 78. Lord Maugham survived her by seven years, dying in March 1958, aged 91. He is buried in the grounds of the parish church in Hartfield, Sussex, alongside his wife and son.
