1501 Rufus Isaacs

Constituency :   Reading  1904-13

Rufus  took  over  from  George  Palmer  at  Reading.

Rufus  was  the  son  of  a  Jewish  fruit  merchant  at  Spitalfields. He  was  educated  at  University  College  School. He  worked  in  the  family  firm, then  as  a  ship's  boy,  then  on  the  Stock  Exchange. He  then  became  a  barrister.

Rufus  was initially  a   Liberal  Imperialist  and  then  a   moderate  centrist  but  he  gave  strong  support  to  Lloyd  George's  land  reform  proposals  and  National  Insurance.

In  1910  Rufus  became  Solicitor-General  in  Asquith's  government. Six  months  later he  was  promoted  to  Attorney-General  and  in  1912  was  admitted  into  the  Cabinet  to  soothe  his  irritation  at  not  being  made  Lord  Chancellor.  He  represented  the  Board  of  Trade  at  the  Titanic  inquiry.

In  1913  Rufus  was  elevated  to  the  Lords  as  Baron  Reading  and  became  Lord  Chief  Justice.

Rufus  was  implicated  in  the  Marconi  scandal  because  his  brother  Geoffrey  was  chairman  of  the  Marconi  company  at  the  time. He  successfuly  sued  the  French  magazine  Le  Matin,  who  her  broken  the  story. for  libel.

In  1915,  Rufus  led  the  Anglo-French  Financial  Commission  seeking  financial  aid  from  the  U.S.  In  1916  he  was  upgraded  to  a  viscount    and  a  year  later  to  an  eral.From  1918  to  1919 , he  was Ambassador  to  the  U.S. ( i.e  while President  Wilson  was  at  the  Paris  Peace  Conference ).

In  1921,  Rufus  resigned  as  Lord  Chief  Justice  in  order  to  become  Viceroy  of  India. He  pursued  a  conciliatory  policy  although  he  did  imprison  Gandhi  in  1922. He  stepped  down  in  1926  and  was  upgraded  to  a  marquess, the  highest  title  ever  attained  by  a  Jew.

In  August  1931,  Rufus  became  Foreign  Secretary  in  the  National  Government  but  resigned  through  ill-health  that  November.  

He  died  in  1935  aged  75.