Society Chairman posts obituary of Lord Hooson in Liberal Democrat News
There follows the text of the obituary of Emlyn Hooson which appeared in on 9 March 2012 written by Martin Thomas, Lord Thomas of Gresford, a close former colleague of Lord Hooson in the law and politics and the recently elected new Chairman of the Lloyd George Society.
“Emlyn Hooson was one of a talented family who farmed in the Vale of Clwyd in North Wales. He was always prone to say that he was at heart a farmer. But the law was his vocation. He set up on his own the Chambers in Chester which Alex Carlile and I later joined.
His stroke of luck came when his leader in a murder case at the Chester Assizes was unable to appear. At the age of 25, Emlyn conducted the case with such aplomb that he won the plaudits of the trial judge, Lord Chief Justice Goddard, who taught him that there is only ever a single point in a trial which if grasped, will lead to success. Emlyn, who was quick in his thinking and bold in his decision-making, thereafter took and highlighted the main issue in a case and his charm and twinkle appealed to both juries and judges. When he took silk at 35, he was said to be the youngest since Francis Bacon in Elizabethan times. He was hugely respected, both by the Bar and by the judiciary before whom he appeared.
In politics he was first chosen as a candidate for Lloyd George’s seat in Caernarfon. Later, in 1962, after his highly successful marriage to Shirley, he won Montgomeryshire after the death of Liberal leader Clement Davies. Following the defeat of the Liberals in Ceredigion by Elystan Morgan in 1966, he led a group of four of us to form the Welsh Liberal Party, independent of London, and followed it with a series of Bills for Welsh Devolution presented to Parliament.
The determination of those of the Asquithian tradition never to have another Welshman, was to my knowledge a factor in his defeat by Jeremy Thorpe for the leadership of the party following Grimond’s retirement in 1967. History could have been different. He was always a doughty fighter for Montgomeryshire and a champion of civil liberties and the rule of law, both in the Commons and the Lords.
A fluent Welsh speaker, Emlyn was a member of the Gorsedd and a successful President of the Llangollen International Eisteddfod. In business he steered Laura Ashley through difficult times and served as Chairman of the Severn Second River Crossing consortium to build today’s gateway to Wales within time and budget. We think of it as ‘Pont Emlyn’.
I shall remember him always as great company, ready to reminisce, to talk of sport, particularly rugby football, to take an interest in our personal lives and to encourage all of us in our careers, both in Chambers in the Temple and in Parliament. We will greatly miss him.”
