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{{Short description|British lawyer and politician (1900–1967)}}
{{Use British English|date=November 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2014}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix = [[The Right Honourable]]
| name = The Earl of Kilmuir
| honorific-suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|GCVO|PC}}
| image = David Maxwell Fyfe, Nuremberg, 1946 (Art. IWM ART LD 5863).jpg
| caption = [[Nuremberg trials|Nuremberg]] sketch by [[Laura Knight]] (1946)
| order1 = [[Lord Chancellor]]
| term_start1 = 18 October 1954
| term_end1 = 13 July 1962
| monarch1 = [[Elizabeth II]]
| primeminister1 = {{unbulleted list|Sir [[Winston Churchill]]|Sir [[Anthony Eden]]|[[Harold Macmillan]]}}
| predecessor1 = [[Gavin Simonds, 1st Viscount Simonds|The Viscount Simonds]]
| successor1 = [[Reginald Manningham-Buller, 1st Viscount Dilhorne|The Lord Dilhorne]]
| order2 = [[Home Secretary]]
| term_start2 = 27 October 1951
| term_end2 = 19 October 1954
| primeminister2 = [[Winston Churchill]]
| predecessor2 = [[James Chuter Ede]]
| successor2 = [[Gwilym Lloyd George]]
| order3 = [[Attorney-General for England]]
| term_start3 = 25 May 1945
| term_end3 = 26 July 1945
| primeminister3 = [[Winston Churchill]]
| predecessor3 = [[Donald Somervell, Baron Somervell of Harrow|Sir Donald Somervell]]
| successor3 = [[Hartley Shawcross]]
| order4 = [[Solicitor-General for England]]
| term_start4 = 4 March 1942
| term_end4 = 25 May 1945
| primeminister4 = [[Winston Churchill]]
| predecessor4 = [[William Jowitt, 1st Earl Jowitt|Sir William Jowitt]]
| successor4 = [[Walter Monckton]]
| birth_name = David Patrick Maxwell Fyfe
| birth_date = {{birth-date|29 May 1900}}
| birth_place = [[Edinburgh]], Scotland
| death_date = {{death-date and age|27 January 1967|29 May 1900}}
| death_place = [[Withyham]], England
| nationality = British
| party = [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]]
| alma_mater = [[Balliol College, Oxford]]
| spouse = [[Sylvia Sackville, Countess De La Warr|Sylvia Harrison]] (m. 1925)
| children = 3
}}
'''David Patrick Maxwell Fyfe, 1st Earl of Kilmuir''', {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|GCVO|PC|}} (29 May 1900 – 27 January 1967), known as '''Sir David Maxwell Fyfe''' from 1942 to 1954 and as '''Viscount Kilmuir''' from 1954 to 1962, was a [[British Conservative]] politician, lawyer and judge who combined a legal career with political ambitions that took him to the offices of [[Solicitor General for England and Wales|Solicitor General]], [[Attorney General for England and Wales|Attorney General]], [[Home Secretary]] and [[Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain]].
One of the [[prosecutor|prosecuting counsels]] at the [[Nuremberg Trials]], he subsequently played a role in drafting the [[European Convention on Human Rights]]. As Home Secretary from 1951 to 1954 he greatly increased the number of prosecutions of homosexuals and declined to commute [[Derek Bentley]]'s death sentence for the murder of a police officer. His political ambitions were ultimately dashed in [[Harold Macmillan]]'s [[Night of the Long Knives (1962)|cabinet reshuffle]] of July 1962.
==Early life==
Born in [[Edinburgh]], the only son of William Thomson Fyfe, headmaster of [[Aberdeen Grammar School]], by his second wife Isabella Campbell, daughter of David Campbell, of Dornoch, co. Sutherland,<ref>Cracroft's Peerage.</ref> he was educated at [[George Watson's College]] and [[Balliol College, Oxford]], where he achieved a third-class degree in [[Greats]]. Whilst at Oxford, he was a member of the [[Stubbs Society]]. His academic education was paused during his service in the [[Scots Guards]] in 1918–19, at the end of the [[World War I]].<ref name=kellys>{{cite book|title=Kelly's Handbook to the Titled, Landed and Official Classes, 1945|publisher=Kelly's|page=763}} Also stated in ''Burke's Peerage'' and ''Who Was Who'' but omitted from sketches in both the ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (1961–1970 Supplement) and the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''.</ref> After graduation, he worked for the [[British Commonwealth Union]] as political secretary to Sir [[Patrick Hannon]] [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|MP]], studying law in his spare time. He entered [[Gray's Inn]] and was [[called to the bar]] in 1922. He became a [[pupillage|pupil]] of [[George Lynskey]] in Liverpool then joined his chambers to practise.<ref name="ODNB">Dutton (2004).</ref> Maxwell Fyfe later wrote that his ambition was to be a silk ([[King's Counsel]]) in his thirties, a minister in his forties and at the top of the legal profession in his fifties.<ref>Jago 2015, p.244</ref>
Not pausing before beginning his political career in earnest, he stood as a Conservative for [[Wigan (UK Parliament constituency)|Wigan]] in [[1924 United Kingdom general election|1924]], an unwinnable parliamentary seat. He cultivated the more winnable [[Spen Valley (UK Parliament constituency)|Spen Valley]] until [[1929 United Kingdom general election|1929]] when the party resolved not to oppose sitting [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] (MP) Sir [[John Simon, 1st Viscount Simon|John Simon]] while he was absent on the [[Simon Commission]] in India. Maxwell Fyfe was eventually elected to [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Parliament]] in [[Liverpool West Derby]] in a [[1935 Liverpool West Derby by-election|by-election]] in July 1935.<ref name="ODNB"/>
Meanwhile, Maxwell Fyfe's legal career had prospered. In 1934 he became King's Counsel.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=34025 |date=20 February 1934 |page=1152}}</ref> He was [[Recorder (judge)|Recorder]] of [[Oldham]] from 1936 to 1942.<ref name="ODNB"/>
==Early political career==
Maxwell Fyfe, along with [[Patrick Spens, 1st Baron Spens|Patrick Spens]], [[Derrick Gunston]] and others, backed the [[National Government 1935–1940|National Government]] over the [[Hoare–Laval Pact]], and he supported [[Neville Chamberlain]] over the [[Munich Agreement]]. However, after the [[German occupation of Czechoslovakia]] in March 1939, Maxwell Fyfe joined the [[Territorial Army (United Kingdom)|Territorial Army]]<ref>The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography more precisely puts it as the Army Officers' Emergency Reserve.</ref> and, at the outbreak of [[World War II]] in September, he was deployed to the [[Judge Advocate General (United Kingdom)|Judge Advocate-General]]'s department with rank of [[Major (rank)|major]]. He was badly injured in an [[airstrike|air raid]] in September 1940. In May 1941 Maxwell Fyfe became deputy to [[Rab Butler]]'s chairmanship of the Conservative Party Post War Problems Committee to draft policies for after the war. He took over as chairman from Butler between July 1943 and August 1944 while Butler was busy passing the [[Education Act 1944]] (see [[Political career of Rab Butler (1941–1951)]]).<ref name="ODNB"/>
==Government==
[[File:David Maxwell Fyfe and another.jpg|right|thumb|upright=1.2|Sir David Maxwell Fyfe (centre) and an unknown prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials]]
In March 1942, Sir [[Winston Churchill]], on the advice of [[Brendan Bracken]], appointed Maxwell Fyfe [[Solicitor General for England and Wales|Solicitor-General]]. At the same time he was [[knight]]ed and sworn of the [[Privy Council of the United Kingdom|Privy Council]]. He applied himself to his work in the wartime coalition government with enormous industry and began some of the thinking and planning about how the leaders of the [[Nazi]] regime in Germany might be brought to account after the war. As part of his duties, on 8 April 1945, he attended an Anglo-American discussion over the war crimes trial, at which, says the historian [[Richard Overy]], "he presented the standard British argument for [[summary execution]]."<ref>Richard Overy, ''Interrogations: The Nazi Elite in Allied Hands, 1945'' (New York: Viking, 2001), p. 11.</ref> Whether Maxwell Fyfe believed such executions were the best method of dealing with the Nazis may be doubted, in view of his later work at the [[Nuremberg Trials]]; at the time, however, as a member of the government he had little choice but to follow the lead of the Prime Minister, Churchill, who repeatedly urged that summary justice be visited upon the Nazi leaders.<ref>Overy, p. 6.</ref> When the war in Europe ended and the coalition was dissolved in May 1945, Maxwell Fyfe was briefly [[Attorney General for England and Wales|Attorney-General]] in Churchill's caretaker government.<ref name="ODNB"/>
==Nuremberg Trials==
The [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] won a landslide victory in the [[1945 United Kingdom general election|United Kingdom general election of 1945]] and Sir [[Hartley Shawcross]] became Attorney General and took responsibility as Britain's chief prosecutor in the Nuremberg Trials. Shawcross, to emphasise the non-partisan nature of the trials, appointed Maxwell Fyfe his deputy. Shawcross was largely committed to his political duties in [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Westminster]] and played little part other than delivering the opening and closing speeches. Maxwell Fyfe took on most of the day-to-day responsibilities as "capable lawyer, efficient administrator and concerned housemaster".<ref>Tusa & Tusa (1983), p. 136.</ref> There were misgivings in some quarters as to how Fyfe would perform, [[cross-examination]] not being regarded as one of his strengths. However, his cross-examination of [[Hermann Göring]] was one of the most noted in history.<ref name="ODNB"/>
==Opposition==
After Nuremberg, Maxwell Fyfe returned to Parliament to [[Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet (United Kingdom)|shadow]] the [[Secretary of State for Employment|Minister of Labour]] while simultaneously pursuing a full, busy and prominent career at the [[Bar association|Bar]], for example defending serial murderer [[John George Haigh]] in 1949. Reputedly, he would arrive at the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]] at around 5.00 pm, often stay throughout debates that lasted all night then, after a quick shave and breakfast, leave for [[court]]. He was assisted in his punishing schedule by his wife [[Sylvia Sackville, Countess De La Warr|Sylvia]], herself a Conservative Party worker.<ref name="ODNB"/> In 1945–51 he earned an annual average of £25,000.<ref>Jago 2015, p.244</ref>
Maxwell Fyfe played a leading role in drafting the party's [[Industrial Charter]] of 1947 and chaired the committee into Conservative Party organisation that resulted in the ''Maxwell Fyfe Report'' (1948–49). The report shifted the responsibility of funding electoral expenditure from the candidate to the constituency party, with the intention of broadening the [[diversity (politics)|diversity]] of MPs by making it harder for local associations to demand large personal donations from candidates. In practice, it may have had the effect of lending more power to [[United Kingdom constituencies|constituency]] parties and making candidates more uniform.<ref name="ODNB"/>
Maxwell Fyfe was a champion of [[European integration]] and a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the [[Council of Europe]] from August 1949 to May 1952, becoming the Chair of the Assembly's Committee on Legal and Administrative Questions, and [[rapporteur]] on the committee drafting the [[European Convention on Human Rights]]. In his memoirs<ref>Political Adventure, The Memoirs of the Earl of Kilmuir (1964).</ref> he criticised Sir [[Anthony Eden]] for a negative stance that derailed the UK's opportunity to become a leader in Europe. Eden always rejected this and considered a [[libel]] action against Maxwell Fyfe.<ref name="ODNB"/>
==Return to government==
===Home Secretary===
Shortly before the [[1951 United Kingdom general election|United Kingdom general election of 1951]], Maxwell Fyfe caused a stir when he appeared to hint in a radio interview that a Conservative government might legislate to curb the power of trade unions. When the Conservative Party was returned to power in the election, Churchill thought it unwise to appoint him Minister of Labour, and Maxwell Fyfe became both [[Home Secretary]] and cabinet minister for Welsh affairs. He was responsible for guiding several complicated pieces of legislation through the Commons, in particular those that established [[Television in the United Kingdom|commercial television]]. He gained a reputation as a hard-working, thorough and reliable cabinet member.<ref name="ODNB"/>
In 1952, the [[Director General of MI5]] (DG) was made directly answerable to the Home Secretary rather than the Prime Minister. Given this novel responsibility, Maxwell Fyfe issued the Maxwell Fyfe Directive which became the ''de facto'' constitution of the Security Service until the [[Security Service Act 1989]] set it on a statutory basis.<ref>Andrew (2009), pp. 322–323.</ref> When [[Sir Percy Sillitoe]] resigned as DG in 1953, Maxwell Fyfe delegated the shortlisting of a successor to a committee of civil servants chaired by [[Edward Bridges, 1st Baron Bridges|Sir Edward Bridges]]. The committee put forward [[Dick White]] and [[Kenneth Strong|Sir Kenneth Strong]]. Maxwell Fyfe endorsed the committee's preference for White, observing to Churchill that an internal appointment would be good for the morale of the service.<ref>Andrew (2009), pp. 323–324.</ref>
Fyfe's assumption of office as Home Secretary heralded a reign of fear for male homosexuals. A stern advocate of existing legislation criminalising homosexual acts, he started a campaign to "rid England of this male vice … this plague"<ref>Jenkins, Simon, "Make mine a glass of cannabis wine, thank you", The Guardian (Manchester), 19 October 2018.</ref> by dramatically increased arrests of male homosexuals through police surveillance and entrapment via the use of ''agents provocateurs'', tapped telephones, forged documents and the absence of warrants.<ref name="ReferenceA">Stewart, Graham "The Accidental Legacy of a Homophobic Humanitarian", The Times (London), 2 October 2000.</ref> From 1,276 in prosecutions in 1939 for actual or attempted sodomy or gross indecency, a year after he had assumed the office of Home Secretary prosecutions had soared to 5,443.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Fyfe subsequently sanctioned the establishment of the [[Wolfenden Report]] into homosexuality, but had he known its findings would recommend decriminalisation, it is unlikely he would have done so.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}
A conservative on the death penalty, Kilmuir was likewise conservative on the issue of homosexual rights, and led the opposition in the House of Lords to the implementation of the Wolfenden Report, which had recommended the decriminalisation of homosexual acts between [[sexual consent|consenting adults]].
This was ironic, says [[Geraldine Bedell]], since it was he, while Home Secretary, who had set up the committee to consider whether the law should be changed.<ref name="bedell">Geraldine Bedell, [https://www.theguardian.com/society/2007/jun/24/communities.gayrights "Coming out of the dark ages"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130831130526/https://www.theguardian.com/society/2007/jun/24/communities.gayrights |date=31 August 2013 }}, ''The Observer'', London, 24 June 2007.</ref> As Bedell also notes: "Perhaps he thought, by handing over to a committee, to shelve the issue. Perhaps he assumed [[John Wolfenden, Baron Wolfenden|Wolfenden]] would find against, in which case, he chose a curious chairman, because Wolfenden had a gay son, [[Jeremy Wolfenden|Jeremy]]." Kilmuir still opposed liberalisation when a bill was introduced in the Lords (by [[Arthur Gore, 8th Earl of Arran|Lord Arran]]) in 1965. Says Bedell: "For the opposition, Lord Kilmuir warned against licensing the 'buggers' clubs' which he claimed were operating behind innocent-looking doors all over London."<ref name="bedell"/> Maxwell Fyfe told the Conservative backbencher [[Robert Boothby|Sir Robert Boothby]], who was known in parliamentary circles to be bisexual, that it was not his intention to legalise homosexuality: "I am not going down in history", he told Boothby, "as the man who made [[sodomy]] legal."<ref>''Family Britain 1951–1957'' by [[David Kynaston]], Bloomsbury 2009, p. 370 {{ISBN|978-1-4088-0083-6}}.</ref>
During his tenure as Home Secretary, he was embroiled in the controversy surrounding the [[hanging]] of [[Derek Bentley]].<ref name="ODNB"/> Maxwell Fyfe had controversially refused to grant a reprieve to Bentley despite the written petitions of 200 MPs and the claim that Bentley was mentally retarded allegedly having a mental age of only 11.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.richard.clark32.btinternet.co.uk/bentley.html |title=Derek William Bentley "A victim of British justice?" |access-date=2006-10-04 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061004024357/http://www.richard.clark32.btinternet.co.uk/bentley.html |archive-date=4 October 2006 |df=dmy }}</ref> However, on most issues he was on the progressive wing of the Conservative Party, opposing the proposals in 1953 for the re-introduction of [[Judicial corporal punishment|corporal punishment]].<ref name="ODNB"/>
===Lord Chancellor===
Maxwell Fyfe remained ambitious and a ''[[Daily Mirror]]'' opinion poll in 1954, on the popular favourite to succeed Churchill as Party leader and [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|prime minister]], had him behind Eden and Butler but well ahead of Macmillan.<ref name="ODNB"/> In his memoirs (''Political Adventure'', p233) he later wrote that he had hoped to emerge as a compromise leader like [[Bonar Law]] in 1911 if Eden and Butler, both of whom he regarded as personal friends, found themselves in a dead heat.<ref>Jago 2015, p.244</ref> However, once it was clear that Eden was to be Churchill's successor, Maxwell Fyfe sought the office of [[Lord Chancellor]].<ref name="ODNB"/>
On 19 October 1954 he was raised to the peerage as '''Viscount Kilmuir''', of [[Creich, Sutherland|Creich]] in the [[County of Sutherland]],<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=40304 |date=19 October 1954 |page=5913}}</ref> and moved to the [[House of Lords]] and the "[[woolsack]]". Lord Kilmuir was a political Lord Chancellor, not restricting himself to his judicial role. He worked on many government issues including the constitution of [[Malta]], which he wanted to become part of the UK, and the creation of the [[Restrictive Practices Court]]. In his eight years in the post he only sat as a judge on 24 appeals to the [[Judicial functions of the House of Lords|House of Lords]]. Lord Kilmuir opposed [[Sydney Silverman]]'s 1956 [[private member's bill]] to abolish capital punishment. He described it as "an unwise and dangerous measure, the presence of which on the statute book would be a disaster for the country and a menace to the people". However, Kilmuir chaired the cabinet committee that recommended limiting the death penalty's scope and which led to the [[Homicide Act 1957]]. He feared the consequences of [[immigration to the United Kingdom]] and presented a report to the cabinet in 1956. Lord Kilmuir contended that the military intervention in the 1956 [[Suez Crisis]] was justified under the [[self-defence]] provisions of [[s:Charter of the United Nations#Chapter VII - Action with Respect to Threats to the Peace, Breaches of the Peace and Acts of Aggression|Article 51]] of the [[United Nations Charter]].<ref name="ODNB"/>
He continued in this office in the governments of Anthony Eden and Harold Macmillan until Macmillan's 1962 "[[Night of the Long Knives (1962)|Night of the Long Knives]]", when he was abruptly replaced by [[Reginald Manningham-Buller, 1st Viscount Dilhorne|Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller]], the Attorney-General. Kilmuir was made '''Baron Fyfe of Dornoch''', of [[Dornoch]] in the County of Sutherland, and '''Earl of Kilmuir''' on 20 July 1962<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=42740|date=24 July 1962|page=5909|supp=y}}</ref> to cushion the blow of retirement.<ref name="ODNB"/><ref>Alderman (1992).</ref> He is said to have complained to Macmillan that he was being sacked with less notice than would be given to a cook, to which Macmillan replied that it was easier to get Lord Chancellors than good cooks.<ref>Thorpe 1989, p. 349.</ref>
==After government==
After government, Kilmuir joined the board of directors of [[Plessey]] but his health soon declined. He died at [[Withyham]], Sussex, on 27 January 1967 and was [[cremated]]. His ashes were buried at the church of St Michael and All Angels at Withyham. His wealth at death was £22,202 ({{inflation|UK|22202|1967|fmt=eq|cursign=£|r=-5}}). His titles, which could pass only to sons, became extinct, as he had fathered only daughters.<ref name="ODNB"/>
==Family and personality==
He married [[Sylvia Sackville, Countess De La Warr|Sylvia Harrison]] in 1925 and they had three daughters, one of whom pre-deceased him. Lalage Fyfe (b. 1926, d. 1944) and Pamela Maxwell Fyfe (1928-2025). His brother-in-law was the actor [[Sir Rex Harrison]].<ref name="ODNB"/>
Kilmuir was a formidable parliamentary presence on behalf of his party, and his remarkable memory compensated for a dull speaking style, though he was capable of passion when the circumstances were right. In appearance, "His body was pear-shaped, and beneath a large square bald head there were dark heavy eyebrows and a face of middle-eastern pallor and swarthiness".<ref name="ODNB"/>
As Home Secretary, he often travelled to [[Wales]]. In the valleys of [[South Wales]] he was nicknamed ''Dai Bananas'', [[Fyffes]] being one of Britain's major importers of the fruit.<ref>Peter Hennessy, ''Having It So Good, Britain in the Fifties'' (Allen Lane, 2006) p. 265. Quoted from Gwyn A. Williams, ''When Was Wales? A History of the Welsh'' (Penguin, 1985), p. 296).</ref>
==Honours==
Among his honours were:<ref name="ODNB"/>
* [[King's Counsel]] (KC) (1934)
* [[Knight Bachelor|Knighthood]] (Kt) (1942)
* [[Privy Council (United Kingdom)|Privy Councillor]] (PC) (1945)
* [[Viscount Kilmuir]] (1954)
* [[Earl of Kilmuir]] (1962)
* Knight Grand Cross in the [[Royal Victorian Order]] (GCVO) (1953);
*Honorary degrees including:
**[[University of Oxford]];
**[[University of Manitoba]] ([[Doctor of Laws|LL.D]]) 1954.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://umanitoba.ca/admin/governance/senate/hdr/834.html|title=University of Manitoba – University Governance – Honorary Degree Recipients|website=umanitoba.ca|access-date=25 November 2019|archive-date=2 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191102131100/https://umanitoba.ca/admin/governance/senate/hdr/834.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
**[[University of Edinburgh]] ([[Doctor of Laws|LL.D]]) 1955.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.scripts.sasg.ed.ac.uk/registry/Graduations/GraduateDetails.cfm?ID=875 |title=Honorary Graduates of the University of Edinburgh |website=Scripts.sasg.ed.ac.uk |date=2013-07-19 |access-date=2016-04-08 |archive-date=14 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150714133321/http://www.scripts.sasg.ed.ac.uk/registry/Graduations/GraduateDetails.cfm?ID=875 |url-status=live }}</ref>
**[[University of Wales]];
**[[University of Ottawa]] ([[Doctor of Laws|LL.D]]) 16 September 1960.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2194&dat=19600917&id=OOkxAAAAIBAJ&pg=5601,351104&hl=en |title=Archived copy |access-date=14 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160505210907/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2194&dat=19600917&id=OOkxAAAAIBAJ&sjid=4uQFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5601,351104&hl=en |archive-date=5 May 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
*[[Visitor]] of [[St Antony's College, Oxford]] (1953); and
*[[Rector (academia)|Rector]] of the [[University of St Andrews]] (1956).
{{Infobox COA wide
|image = [[File:Coronet of a British Earl.svg|centre|150px]] [[File:Kilmuir Escutcheon.png|centre|200px]]
|escutcheon = Or a lion rampant Gules on a chief Gules a water bouget between two mullets Argent a border invected Argent.
|motto = Decens Et Honestum
|notes = Displayed on a painted panel in the hall at Gray's Inn.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/baz_manning/54665009013/in/photostream/ |publisher=Baz Manning |accessdate=26 July 2025 |title=Gray's Inn Hall panel S22a FIFE, David Patrick Maxwell 1949.}}</ref>
|crest = A demi lion Gules between six ears of wheat issuant Or.}}
==Portrayal in drama==
David Maxwell Fyfe has been portrayed by the following actors in film, television and theatre productions;<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.imdb.com/character/ch003581/ | title = Sir David Maxwell Fyfe (Character)| access-date = 20 May 2008| publisher = [[IMDb.com]] | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20160107023946/http://www.imdb.com/character/ch003581/| archive-date =2016-01-07| url-status = dead }}</ref>
* [[Iain Cuthbertson]] in the 1991 British/French film ''[[Let Him Have It]]''
* [[Christopher Plummer]] in the 2000 Canadian/U.S. TV production ''[[Nuremberg (2000 film)|Nuremberg]]''
*[[Julian Wadham]] in the 2006 British television docudrama ''[[Nuremberg: Nazis on Trial]]''
*[[Mel Smith]] in the 2007 British television drama ''[[Consenting Adults (BBC)|Consenting Adults]]''
*[[John Warnaby]] in [[Nicholas de Jongh]]'s stage play, ''[[Plague Over England]]'' (London, 2009)<ref>Karen Fricker,
[https://www.variety.com/review/VE1117939768.html?categoryid=1265&cs=1 "Plague Over England" (review)], ''Variety'', 24 February 2009.</ref>
*There is also a film being made about him called ''Under an English Heaven'' by his grandson Tom Blackmore.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://englishcabaret.co.uk/#/under-an-english-heaven/4556817622 |title=HOME – |access-date=1 June 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111109152501/http://www.englishcabaret.co.uk/ |archive-date=9 November 2011 }}</ref>
*[[Zdzisław Mrożewski]] in the Polish film ''Epilog norymberski''
==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}
==Bibliography==
*Obituaries:
**''[[The Times]]'', 28 January 1967
**''[[The Guardian]]'', 28 January 1967
*{{ cite journal | author=Alderman, K. | title=Harold Macmillan's 'Night of the long knives' | journal=Contemporary Record | year=1992 | volume=6 | issue=2 | pages=243–265 | doi=10.1080/13619469208581210 }}
*{{ cite book | author=Andrew, C. | author-link=Christopher Andrew (historian) | title=The Defence of the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5 | year=2009 | publisher=Allen Lane | ___location=London | isbn=978-0-141-02330-4 }}
*Dutton, D. J. (2004)"[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/33301 Fyfe, David Patrick Maxwell, Earl of Kilmuir (1900–1967)]", ''[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]'', Oxford University Press, accessed 4 Aug 2007 {{ODNBsub}}
*{{ cite book | author=Heuston, R. F. V. | author-link = Robert Heuston |title=Lives of the Lord Chancellors, 1940–1970 | year=1987 }}
* {{Cite book|last=Jago|first=Michael|title=Rab Butler: The Best Prime Minister We Never Had?|publisher=Biteback Publishing|year=2015|isbn=978-1849549202}}
*Lord Kilmuir (1964) ''Political Adventure''
* {{cite book|last = Thorpe|first = D. R.|author-link = D. R. Thorpe|year = 1989|title = Selwyn Lloyd|___location = London|publisher = Jonathan Cape Ltd|isbn = 978-0-224-02828-8|url-access = registration|url = https://archive.org/details/selwynlloyd0000thor}}
*[[Ann Tusa|Tusa, A.]] & [[John Tusa|Tusa, J.]] (1983) ''The Nuremberg Trial''
==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
* {{commons category-inline}}
* {{Hansard-contribs | mr-david-maxwell-fyfe | David Maxwell Fyfe }}
*[https://archivesearch.lib.cam.ac.uk/repositories/9/resources/1666 The Papers of Lord Kilmuir] held at [[Churchill Archives Centre]]
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| years = [[1935 Liverpool West Derby by-election|1935]]–[[1954 Liverpool West Derby by-election|1954]]
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{{s-aft
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{{s-aca}}
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| before = [[David Lindsay, 28th Earl of Crawford|The Earl of Crawford]]
}}
{{s-ttl
| title = [[Rector of the University of St Andrews]]
| years = 1955–1958
}}
{{s-aft
| after = [[Robert Boothby, Baron Boothby|The Lord Boothby]]
}}
{{s-reg|uk}}
{{s-new
| rows = 2|creation
}}
{{s-ttl
| title = [[Earl of Kilmuir]]
| years = 1962–1967
}}
{{s-non
| rows = 2
| reason = Extinct
}}
|-
{{s-ttl
| title = [[Viscount Kilmuir]]
| years = 1954–1967
}}
{{s-end}}
{{Lord chancellors}}
{{Home Secretaries}}
{{Third Churchill Ministry}}
{{Rectors of the University of St Andrews}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kilmuir, David Maxwell Fyfe, 1st Earl of}}
[[Category:1900 births]]
[[Category:1967 deaths]]
[[Category:Politicians from Edinburgh]]
[[Category:Lawyers from Edinburgh]]
[[Category:Nobility from Edinburgh]]
[[Category:Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Attorneys general for England and Wales|Maxwell Fyfe, David]]
[[Category:British Anglicans]]
[[Category:Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies|Maxwell Fyfe, David]]
[[Category:Earls in the Peerage of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:English King's Counsel]]
[[Category:English barristers]]
[[Category:Knights Bachelor]]
[[Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order]]
[[Category:Lord chancellors of Great Britain]]
[[Category:Members of Gray's Inn]]
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Liverpool constituencies|Maxwell Fyfe, David]]
[[Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Ministers in the Churchill caretaker government, 1945]]
[[Category:Ministers in the Churchill wartime government, 1940–1945]]
[[Category:Ministers in the Eden government, 1955–1957]]
[[Category:Ministers in the Macmillan and Douglas-Home governments, 1957–1964]]
[[Category:Ministers in the third Churchill government, 1951–1955]]
[[Category:Earls created by Elizabeth II]]
[[Category:People educated at George Watson's College]]
[[Category:Prosecutors of the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg|Maxwell Fyfe, David]]
[[Category:20th-century King's Counsel]]
[[Category:Rectors of the University of St Andrews]]
[[Category:Secretaries of state for the Home Department|Maxwell Fyfe, David]]
[[Category:Solicitors general for England and Wales|Maxwell Fyfe, David]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1935–1945|Maxwell Fyfe, David]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1945–1950|Maxwell Fyfe, David]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1950–1951|Maxwell Fyfe, David]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1951–1955|Maxwell Fyfe, David]]
[[Category:UK MPs who were granted peerages]]
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