Gerald Hurst (politician)
Sir Gerald Berkeley Hurst QC was a British Conservative Party politician.
Gerald Berkeley Hertz was born in Bradford to Fanny Mary and William Martin Hertz, a wool merchant. His Jewish grandparents on both sides came from Germany in the mid-nineteenth century, his Hertz family to Bradford in 1844. He was educated at Bradford Grammar School and Lincoln College, Oxford. Hertz changed the spelling of his surname to Hurst in 1916. Hurst served in the British Army as a lieutenant during World War I and was stationed in the Middle East and France. He married one of the daughters of Alfred Hopkinson, Vice-Chancellor of Manchester University and a Member of Parliament. Their only son was killed in Libya in World War Two.
He was the Member of Parliament for Manchester Moss Side from 1918 to 1923 and from 1924 to 1935. He was a keen supporter of Imperial Preference. Hurst was knighted in 1929. In 1938, he was appointed to the county court for Croydon and West Kent. Hurst stepped down from the county judgeship in 1952. From 1947 to 1955, he served as Commissioner of Divorce Cases. His younger brother was Sir Arthur Frederick Hurst.
