Quintin Hogg, Baron Hailsham of St Marylebone

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Quintin McGarel Hogg, Baron Hailsham of St Marylebone, KG, CH, PC, QC (October 9, 1907 – October 12, 2001), formerly 2nd Viscount Hailsham (1950–1963), was a British Conservative politician.

Born in London, England, Hogg was the son of Douglas Hogg, 1st Viscount Hailsham, who was Lord Chancellor under Stanley Baldwin and grandson of another Quintin Hogg, a merchant and philanthropist. He attended Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford, and embarked on an academic career, becoming a Fellow of All Souls in 1931. Although he had originally read classics, he had won his prize fellowship in law, and was called to the bar in 1932.

In 1938, Hogg was chosen as a candidate for Parliament in the Oxford by-election. This election took place shortly after the Munich Agreement and the Labour candidate Patrick Gordon-Walker was persuaded to step down to allow a unified challenge to the Conservatives; A.D. Lindsay, the Master of Balliol College fought as an 'Independent Progressive' candidate. Hogg enthusiastically defended the appeasement policy of the Government, and despite support from undergraduates (who were unable to vote), Lindsay could not beat him.

Despite his background Hogg voted against Neville Chamberlain in the Norway debate of May 1940, and supported Winston Churchill. He served overseas during World War II. Hogg wrote a response to the succession of left-wing books such as Guilty Men called The Left was never Right in the run-up to the 1945 election.

Hogg's father died in 1950 and he had to move to the House of Lords to continue his political career as 2nd Viscount Hailsham. He continued as a leading member of the Conservative party, becoming First Lord of the Admiralty in 1956, and serving as Chairman of the party and campaign organiser for the 1959 general election. He was Leader of the House of Lords when Harold Macmillan, the prime minister, announced his sudden resignation for health reasons at the start of the 1963 Conservative Party conference.

At that time there was no formal ballot for the Conservative Party leadership. Lord Hailsham brought the contest into public view by announcing that he would use the Peerage Act to disclaim his title and fight a byelection to get back into the House of Commons. He failed to win the leadership but did win St Marylebone, his father's old constituency.

Hogg was a rumbustious campaigner who was known for his robust rhetoric and theatrical gestures. He was usually on good form in dealing with hecklers, a valuable skill in the 1960s, and was prominent in the 1964 general election. At one point, when a Labour Party supporter waved a Harold Wilson placard in front of him, Hogg attacked it with his walking stick.

He served in the shadow cabinet during the Wilson Government, and when Edward Heath won the 1970 general election he received a Life Peerage and became Lord Chancellor, becoming the first person return to the House of Lords as a life peer after having disclaimed an hereditary peerage. Hailsham's choice of Lord Widgery as Lord Chief Justice was much criticized, although he later redeemed himself in the eyes of the profession by appointing Lord Lane to succeed Widgery.

Lord Hailsham of St Marylebone announced his retirement after the end of the Heath government. He coined the term 'elective dictatorship' in 1976, later writing a detailed exposition called The Dilemma of Democracy. However, when his second wife Mary was killed in a riding accident in 1978 in Sydney, Australia, he decided to return to active politics, and served again as Lord Chancellor from 1979 to 1987 under Margaret Thatcher.

Lord Hailsham of St Marylebone was appointed a Companion of Honour in 1975 and became a Knight of the Garter in 1988. On his death the viscountcy was inherited by his son Douglas Hogg MP. As a result of the House of Lords Act 1999, which removed the automatic link between peerages and the right to sit in the House of Lords, the 3rd Viscount has not had to disclaim the title in order to continue to sit as an MP.

Lord Hailsham was also known for his writings on faith and belief. In 1975 he had published his spiritual autobiography The Door Wherein I Went, which included a brief chapter in Christian apologetics using legal arguments concerning the evidences for the life of Christ. His legal apologetic has been the subject of discussion in the writings of Ross Clifford. Lord Hailsham revisited themes of faith in his memoirs A Sparrow's Flight, and the book's title alluded to remarks about sparrows and faith recorded in Bede's Ecclesiastical History and the words of Christ in the gospel of Matthew.

Lord Hailsham was thrice married. His first marriage to Natalie Sullivan lasted around ten years and ended in divorce. His second marriage was to Mary Evelyn Martin and lasted thirty-four years until her accidental death. He remarried in 1986.

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