G. A. H. Branson


Sir George Arthur Harwin Branson, PC, known professionally as G. A. H. Branson, was an English barrister who became a Judge of the High Court of Justice. In that role he was known as Mr. Justice Branson.
In his youth Branson was notable as an oarsman and rowed in the University of Cambridge boat for the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race of 1893. He was the paternal grandfather of Sir Richard Branson.

Early life

Branson was son of James Henry Arthur Branson, Senior Acting Magistrate at Calcutta, India, and wife Mary Ann Brown.

Education

He was educated at Bedford School, where he was a scholar, and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was an Exhibitioner. He took his degree in the Classical Tripos and was also Captain of First Trinity and a rowing blue, taking the bow of the Cambridge Boat for the Boat Race of 1893.

Career

In 1894, after leaving Cambridge, Branson was articled to a firm of solicitors, Markby, Stewart & Co. He also became a member of the Inner Temple and in 1899 was called to the bar and joined the Northern Circuit. Writing books on the Stock Exchange helped to make his name as a young barrister, and he was Junior Counsel to the Treasury from 1912 to 1921. In 1918 he was elected as a Master of the Bench of the Inner Temple. In 1921 he was knighted and appointed a Justice of the High Court of Justice, King's Bench Division, serving until 1939.
Included amongst the cases which he sat upon as a judge was Warner Brothers Pictures Inc v Nelson 1 KB 209 - a dispute between the actor Bette Davis and her employers, Warner Bros.
In January 1940 he was made a member of the Privy Council.

Personal life

In 1915, Branson married the widow Mona Joyce Bailey, a younger daughter of George James Bailey of Invergloy, Inverness-shire, Major, and wife Edith Emma Headley. They had one son, Edward James "Ted" Branson, former Cavalryman, married in Frimley, Surrey, on 15 October 1949 to Evette Huntley Flindt, and one daughter.
Branson continued his interest in sport and was a lifelong member of the Leander Club.
In 1916, Branson took part in the trial of Sir Roger Casement for treason, acting for the Director of Public Prosecutions as junior to F. E. Smith. The court decided that a comma should be read in the text of the Treason Act 1351, crucially widening the sense so that "in the realm or elsewhere" referred to where acts of treason were done and not to where the "King's enemies" may be. It was thus claimed that Casement was "hanged on a comma".
In 1950, shortly before his death, his son Edward James Branson became the father of the future billionaire Sir Richard Branson.

Death

He died on 23 April 1951. Who's Who reported that his address at the time was Bullswater House, Pirbright, Surrey.

Books