Research Article

SIR JOHN WITHERS MP: THE SOLICITOR IN PRIVATE PRACTICE AND PUBLIC LIFE IN ENGLAND BETWEEN THE WARS

Stephen Cretney

Emeritus Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. Material from the papers of Oscar Browning, E. F. Bulmer and N. Wedd is reproduced by kind permission of the residuary legatees under J. J. Withers’ will, the Provost and Scholars of King's College, Cambridge, 2007, and the Master and Fellows of St. Catharine's College. I am especially indebted to the archivists of those Colleges, Patricia McGuire and Suzanne Griffiths. I am also grateful to the Librarians of the Alpine Club and the Royal Geographical Society; to Professor Sir John Baker, Professor W. R. Cornish, Professor Cyril Glasser, and Professor Patrick Polden, who shared with me their erudition as historians of the legal profession; to Professor Avner Offer and Professor John Cardy, who helped me towards some understanding of matters - economic history and mountaineering respectively - of which I had been wholly ignorant; to John Dilger and Derek Hayes, my former professional partners in the firm of Macfarlanes; and to the staff of the Law Society, who went beyond the call of duty in helping me to identify and understand material from their records, archives and library. I am particularly grateful to Withers LLP, which supported me financially with the expenses involved in this study, and to its Chairman Diana Parker. I was greatly helped by a number of informal discussions, with three present members of the firm's staff (Peter Davis, Adrian Pink and Lorraine Preen) and a former partner, Charles Doughty, the last of whom kindly read a draft of this article.