David Patrick Maxwell Fyfe, 1st Earl of Kilmuir - Definition and Overview

David Patrick Maxwell Fyfe, 1st Earl of Kilmuir (1900-1967) was an important British politician and jurist.

Born in Aberdeen, he became the youngest King's Counsel in 250 years in 1934 and was elected to the House of Commons in the Conservative interest in 1935.

When Winston Churchill returned to power in 1951,David Maxwell Fyfe became Home Secretary. In 1954 he was created Viscount Kilmuir and moved to the House of Lords as Lord Chancellor. He continued in this office in the Governments of Anthony Eden and Harold Macmillan until 1962, when he was abruptly replaced by Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller, the Attorney-General, who was made a Baron while Kilmuir was made Earl of Kilmuir and Baron Fyfe of Dornoch to cushion the blow of retirement, although it might have cushioned it more effectively had Kilmuir not learned of the changes listening on the radio.

When he died in 1967, his titles, which could only pass to sons though he had only daughters, became extinct.