John Bigham, 1st Viscount Mersey

John Charles Bigham, 1st Viscount Mersey
220px Lord Mersey
Born	August 3, 1840(1840-08-03) Liverpool
Died	September 3, 1929 (aged 89) Littlehampton, Sussex

John Charles Bigham, 1st Viscount Mersey (August 3, 1840 – September 3, 1929) was a British jurist and politician. He is notable for heading the official Board of Trade inquiries into the sinking of steamships, most notably the RMS Titanic, the RMS Lusitania, and the RMS Empress of Ireland.

Biography

Bigham was born in Liverpool, the son of a merchant. He studied law at the University of London, then travelled to Berlin and Paris to continue his education. Called to the bar in 1870 by the Middle Temple, he practiced commercial law in and around his hometown. In 1883, Bigham was named a Queen's Counsel.

In 1885, Bigham tried his hand at politics, standing as a candidate for Parliament from Toxteth, but lost. He was defeated again in 1892, this time standing for the Liverpool Exchange constituency. He was finally elected on his third attempt in 1895; this time, however, he stood as a Liberal Unionist. However, he was never able to make much of a political impact, and his interest in politics was not much to begin with.

In 1895, Bigham was named a judge to the Queen's Bench while continuing his work in business law. He presided over the railway and canal commission of 1904, worked in the bankruptcy courts, and reviewed courts-martial sentences handed down during the Second Boer War. He joined the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division in 1909, but found the work unfulfilling and retired in 1910.

Titanic

Two years later, Bigham received his greatest fame when he was appointed by Lord Loreburn, the Lord Chancellor in the government of Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith, to head the inquiry commission into the sinking of the RMS Titanic. However, he received criticism for his oversight of this inquiry, as some felt he was biased towards the Board of Trade and the major shipping concerns, and cared less about finding out why the ship sank. In 1913, he presided over the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, and added three more maritime inquiries to his résumé with his heading of the inquiries into the sinkings of the RMS Empress of Ireland (held in Canada in 1914) and the Falaba and RMS Lusitania in 1915.

Peerage

In 1910, Bigham had been raised to the peerage as "Baron Mersey of Toxteth". He was created a viscount in 1916. In his later years, Bigham was beset by deafness, but continued to work actively. He died at Littlehampton in Sussex on September 3, 1929.

Lord Mersey's third son was Sir Trevor Bigham, who became Deputy Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis. Another son, Colonel Charles Clive Bigham, survived the sinking of the passenger ship SS Persia in 1915.

References

• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by John Bigham

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Ralph Neville	Member of Parliament for Liverpool Exchange 1895–1897	Succeeded by Charles McArthur