1.
Privy Council of the United Kingdom
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Her Majestys Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. Its membership mainly comprises senior politicians, who are present or former members of either the House of Commons or the House of Lords, the Council also holds the delegated authority to issue Orders of Council, mostly used to regulate certain public institutions. The Council advises the sovereign on the issuing of Royal Charters, which are used to grant special status to incorporated bodies, otherwise, the Privy Councils powers have now been largely replaced by the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. The Judicial Committee consists of judges appointed as Privy Counsellors, predominantly Justices of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. The Privy Council of the United Kingdom was preceded by the Privy Council of Scotland, the key events in the formation of the modern Privy Council are given below, Witenagemot was an early equivalent to the Privy Council of England. During the reigns of the Norman monarchs, the English Crown was advised by a court or curia regis. The body originally concerned itself with advising the sovereign on legislation, administration, later, different bodies assuming distinct functions evolved from the court. The courts of law took over the business of dispensing justice, nevertheless, the Council retained the power to hear legal disputes, either in the first instance or on appeal. Furthermore, laws made by the sovereign on the advice of the Council, powerful sovereigns often used the body to circumvent the Courts and Parliament. During Henry VIIIs reign, the sovereign, on the advice of the Council, was allowed to enact laws by mere proclamation, the legislative pre-eminence of Parliament was not restored until after Henry VIIIs death. Though the royal Council retained legislative and judicial responsibilities, it became an administrative body. The Council consisted of forty members in 1553, but the sovereign relied on a smaller committee, by the end of the English Civil War, the monarchy, House of Lords, and Privy Council had been abolished. The remaining parliamentary chamber, the House of Commons, instituted a Council of State to execute laws, the forty-one members of the Council were elected by the House of Commons, the body was headed by Oliver Cromwell, de facto military dictator of the nation. In 1653, however, Cromwell became Lord Protector, and the Council was reduced to thirteen and twenty-one members, all elected by the Commons. In 1657, the Commons granted Cromwell even greater powers, some of which were reminiscent of those enjoyed by monarchs, the Council became known as the Protectors Privy Council, its members were appointed by the Lord Protector, subject to Parliaments approval. In 1659, shortly before the restoration of the monarchy, the Protectors Council was abolished, Charles II restored the Royal Privy Council, but he, like previous Stuart monarchs, chose to rely on a small group of advisers. Under George I even more power transferred to this committee and it now began to meet in the absence of the sovereign, communicating its decisions to him after the fact. Thus, the British Privy Council, as a whole, ceased to be a body of important confidential advisers to the sovereign and it is closely related to the word private, and derives from the French word privé
2.
Queen's Counsel
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A Queens Counsel, or Kings Counsel during the reign of a king, is an eminent lawyer who is appointed by the Queen to be one of Her Majestys Counsel learned in the law. The term is recognised as an honorific. Queens Counsel is a status, conferred by the Crown, that is recognised by courts, members have the privilege of sitting within the Bar of court. As members wear silk gowns of a design, the award of Queens Counsel is known informally as taking silk. Appointments are made from within the profession on the basis of merit rather than a particular level of experience. However, successful applicants tend to be barristers, or advocates with 15 years of experience or more, the Attorney-General, Solicitor-General, and Kings Serjeants were Kings Counsel in Ordinary in the Kingdom of England. The first Queens Counsel Extraordinary was Sir Francis Bacon, who was given a patent giving him precedence at the Bar in 1597, the new rank of Kings Counsel contributed to the gradual obsolescence of the formerly more senior serjeant-at-law by superseding it. The Attorney-General and Solicitor-General had similarly succeeded the Kings Serjeants as leaders of the Bar in Tudor times, but the Kings Counsel emerged into eminence only in the early 1830s, prior to when they were relatively few in number. It became the means to recognise a barrister as a senior member of the profession. It became of greater importance to become a KC. The KCs inherited the prestige of the serjeants and their priority before the courts, the earliest English law list, published in 1775, lists 165 members of the Bar, of whom 14 were Kings Counsel, a proportion of about 8. 5%. As of 2010 roughly the same proportion existed, though the number of barristers had increased to about 12,250 in independent practice, in 1839 the number of Queens Counsel was seventy. In 1882, the number of Queens Counsel was 187, the list of Queens Counsel in the Law List of 1897 gave the names of 238, of whom hardly one-third appeared to be in actual practice. In 1959, the number of practising Queens Counsel was 181, in each of the five years up to 1970, the number of practising Queens Counsel was 208,209,221,236 and 262, respectively. In each of the years 1973 to 1978, the number of practising Queens Counsel was 329,345,370,372,384 and 404, in 1989, the number of practising Queens Counsel was 601. In each of the years 1991 to 2000, the number of practising Queens Counsel was 736,760,797,845,891,925,974,1006,1043, the title traditionally depends on the sex of the sovereign. The current Queen, Elizabeth II has had a long reign and it can be assumed that, should the Queen die and the title pass to a descendant, the title will again become KC, as the next three in line to the throne are male heirs. Queens Counsel and serjeants were prohibited, at least from the century, from drafting pleadings alone
3.
Master of the Rolls
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The position dates from at least 1286, although it is believed that the office probably existed earlier than that. The Master of the Rolls was initially a clerk responsible for keeping the Rolls, or records, of the Court of Chancery, the Keeper was the most senior of the dozen Chancery clerks, and as such occasionally acted as keeper of the Great Seal of the Realm. The post evolved into a one as the Court of Chancery did. He retained his functions as the nominal head of the Public Record Office until the Public Records Act 1958 transferred responsibility for it to the Lord Chancellor. One residual reminder of this role is the fact that the Master of the Rolls of the day continues to serve, ex officio, the Master of the Rolls was also previously responsible for registering solicitors, the officers of the Senior Courts. One of the most prominent people to hold the position was Thomas Cromwell, on 3 October 2016, Sir Terence Etherton succeeded Lord Dyson as Master of the Rolls. Category, Masters of the Rolls Hanworth, Lord, some Notes on the Office of Master of the Rolls. The Judges of England 1272–1990, a list of judges of the superior courts
4.
Richard Collins, Baron Collins
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Richard Henn Collins, Baron Collins, PC, KC was an Anglo-Irish lawyer and judge. Born in Dublin, Collins was educated at The Royal School, Dungannon, Trinity College, Dublin, in 1867, he was called to the English bar and joined the northern circuit. He was made a Queens Counsel in 1883 and a judge in 1891, having made a Lord Justice of Appeal in 1897, he was appointed also to the Privy Council. He received the honorary degree LL. D. from the University of Cambridge in May 1902, on 6 March 1907 he was appointed a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, receiving additionally a life peerage with the title Baron Collins, of Kensington in the County of London. He resigned as Lord of Appeal on 9 January 1910, Lord Collins was judge of the first trial against Oscar Wilde on 3 April 1895. He represented Great Britain on the Venezuela Boundary Commission, established to adjudicate in the dispute between British Guiana and Venezuela in 1899. In 1904, he was chairman of the commission investigated the case of Adolf Beck. He died at Hove, East Sussex His wife, Jane Ogle, sumpter v Hedges Wilde v Douglas This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. article name needed
5.
Charles Swinfen Eady, 1st Baron Swinfen
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Charles Swinfen Eady, 1st Baron Swinfen, PC, was a British lawyer and judge. Eady was the son of George John Eady of Chertsey, Surrey and he was educated privately and at the University of London, and was admitted a solicitor in 1874. In 1879 Eady was called to the Bar, Inner Temple and he built a successful legal practice and became a Queens Counsel in 1893. He was appointed a Judge of the High Court of Justice in November 1901 and he held this office until 1913, when he was appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal, serving until 1918. The latter year he succeeded Lord Cozens-Hardy as Master of the Rolls, however, Eadys health soon began to decline and he resigned in the autumn of 1919. He had been admitted to the Privy Council in 1913 and on 1 November 1919 was raised to the peerage as Baron Swinfen and he also gave the judgment in Percival v Wright 2 Ch 401, a key decision on directors duties. Lord Swinfen married, in 1894, Blanche Maude Lee, daughter of Sydney Williams Lee and they had one son and two daughters. He died, aged sixty-eight, at 33 Hyde Park Gardens, London, on 15 November 1919 and he was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium. He was succeeded in the barony by his only son Charles
6.
Letheringsett with Glandford
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Letheringsett is a village in the English county of Norfolk. It forms part of the parish of Letheringsett with Glandford. The village straddles the A148 King’s Lynn to Cromer road, Letheringsett is 1.2 miles west of Holt,32.2 west north east of King’s Lynn and 126 miles north north east of London. The nearest railway station is at Sheringham for the Bittern Line which runs between Sheringham, Cromer and Norwich, the nearest airport is Norwich International Airport. It is the last working watermill in the county of Norfolk, has won prestigious awards for its flour production and is a well-known tourist attraction. Next to the Brewery watermill is the pub, the King’s Head. The church of Letheringsett, St. Andrew, is one of 124 existing round-tower churches in Norfolk, the church appears on a Royal Mail stamp issued on 21 June 1972 as part of a set on British Architecture. The Kings Head has won awards such as family pub of the year. The pub has two bars and a restaurant and has a selection of real ale
7.
Holt, Norfolk
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Holt is a market town, civil parish and electoral ward in the English county of Norfolk. The town is 22.8 miles north of the city of Norwich,9.5 miles west of Cromer and 35 miles east of Kings Lynn, the town is on the route of the A148 Kings Lynn to Cromer road. The nearest railway station is in the town of Sheringham where access to the rail network can be made via the Bittern Line to Norwich. Holt also has a station on the preserved North Norfolk Railway. The town has a population of 3,550, rising and including the ward to 3,810 at the 2011 census, Holt is within the area covered by North Norfolk District Council. The town has a mention in the survey of 1086 known as the Domesday Book. In the survey it is described as a town and a port with the nearby port of Cley next the Sea being described as Holts port. It also had five watermills and twelve teams and as such was seen as a busy thriving viable settlement then. The first Lord of the Manor was Walter Giffard, it passed to Hugh, Earl of Chester, by this time Holt had a well-established market and two annual fairs which were held on 25 April and 25 November. Over the years Holt grew as a place of trade. The weekly market which has taken place since before the 1080s was stopped in 1960s, on 1 May 1708 the town of Holt was devastated by a fire which destroyed most of the medieval town in the matter of three hours. The fire started at Shirehall Plain and quickly spread through the houses of the town. The church was badly damaged with its thatched chancel destroyed. Local reports of the state that the fire spread so swiftly that the butchers did not have time to rescue their meat from their stalls on the market. The damage to the town was estimated to be in the region of £11,000, which was a massive amount of money at that time. After the fire the town received many donations from all over the country, with most of the medieval buildings destroyed in the fire the townsfolk set about rebuilding the town. The rebuilding made Holt notable for its abundance of Georgian buildings, however, the town repaired and retains its Norman parish church, which is dedicated to St Andrew. It has been noted that if the town of Holt had not been destroyed by the fire in 1708 it would now look very similar to the town of Lavenham in Suffolk
8.
Norfolk
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Norfolk /ˈnɔːrfək/ is a county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the west and north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea and, to the north-west, The Wash. With an area of 2,074 square miles and a population of 859,400, of the countys population, 40% live in four major built up areas, Norwich, Great Yarmouth, Kings Lynn and Thetford. The Broads is a network of rivers and lakes in the east of the county, the area is not a National Park although it is marketed as such. It has similar status to a park, and is protected by the Broads Authority. Norfolk was settled in times, with camps along the higher land in the west. A Brythonic tribe, the Iceni, inhabited the county from the 1st century BC to the end of the 1st century AD, the Iceni revolted against the Roman invasion in AD47, and again in 60 led by Boudica. The crushing of the second opened the county to the Romans. During the Roman era roads and ports were constructed throughout the county, situated on the east coast, Norfolk was vulnerable to invasions from Scandinavia and Northern Europe, and forts were built to defend against the Angles and Saxons. Norfolk, Suffolk and several adjacent areas became the kingdom of East Anglia, the influence of the Early English settlers can be seen in the many place names ending in -ton and -ham. Endings such as -by and -thorpe are also common, indicating Danish place names, in the 9th century the region came under attack. In the centuries before the Norman Conquest the wetlands of the east of the county began to be converted to farmland, and settlements grew in these areas. Migration into East Anglia must have high, by the time of the Domesday Book survey it was one of the most densely populated parts of the British Isles. During the high and late Middle Ages the county developed arable agriculture, the economy was in decline by the time of the Black Death, which dramatically reduced the population in 1349. During the English Civil War Norfolk was largely Parliamentarian, the economy and agriculture of the region declined somewhat. During the Industrial Revolution Norfolk developed little industry except in Norwich which was an addition to the railway network. In the 20th century the county developed a role in aviation, during the Second World War agriculture rapidly intensified, and it has remained very intensive since, with the establishment of large fields for growing cereals and oilseed rape. Norfolks low-lying land and easily eroded cliffs, many of which are chalk and clay, make it vulnerable to the sea, the low-lying section of coast between Kelling and Lowestoft Ness in Suffolk is currently managed by the Environment Agency to protect the Broads from sea flooding
9.
Alma mater
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Alma mater is an allegorical Latin phrase for a university or college. In modern usage, it is a school or university which an individual has attended, the phrase is variously translated as nourishing mother, nursing mother, or fostering mother, suggesting that a school provides intellectual nourishment to its students. Before its modern usage, Alma mater was a title in Latin for various mother goddesses, especially Ceres or Cybele. The source of its current use is the motto, Alma Mater Studiorum, of the oldest university in continuous operation in the Western world and it is related to the term alumnus, denoting a university graduate, which literally means a nursling or one who is nourished. The phrase can also denote a song or hymn associated with a school, although alma was a common epithet for Ceres, Cybele, Venus, and other mother goddesses, it was not frequently used in conjunction with mater in classical Latin. Alma Redemptoris Mater is a well-known 11th century antiphon devoted to Mary, the earliest documented English use of the term to refer to a university is in 1600, when University of Cambridge printer John Legate began using an emblem for the universitys press. In English etymological reference works, the first university-related usage is often cited in 1710, many historic European universities have adopted Alma Mater as part of the Latin translation of their official name. The University of Bologna Latin name, Alma Mater Studiorum, refers to its status as the oldest continuously operating university in the world. At least one, the Alma Mater Europaea in Salzburg, Austria, the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, has been called the Alma Mater of the Nation because of its ties to the founding of the United States. At Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, the ancient Roman world had many statues of the Alma Mater, some still extant. Modern sculptures are found in prominent locations on several American university campuses, outside the United States, there is an Alma Mater sculpture on the steps of the monumental entrance to the Universidad de La Habana, in Havana, Cuba. Media related to Alma mater at Wikimedia Commons The dictionary definition of alma mater at Wiktionary Alma Mater Europaea website
