Mervyn Griffith-Jones
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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John Mervyn Guthrie Griffith-Jones, CBE MC QC (1 July 1909 - 13 July 1979) was a British judge and former barrister.
Griffith-Jones was born in Hampstead, London. He is most famous for leading the prosecution of Penguin Books in the obscenity trial in 1960, following the publication of D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover. His much quoted remark as to whether the novel was something "you would wish your wife or servants to read" has entered popular culture, and is often cited as representing the extent to which the British 'Establishment' had fallen out of touch with popular opinion at the time. He failed to convince the jury at the Chatterley trial, and the publishers were acquitted.
Griffith-Jones was called to the Bar in 1932. He served with the Coldstream Guards during the Second World War, and was awarded the Military Cross. After the war he was one of the British prosecuting counsel at the Nuremberg Trials. In 1955 he was junior to Christmas Humphreys for the prosecution at the trial of Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in the UK. He later gained a reputation as successful prosecutor in obscenity cases until his loss at the Chatterley trial in 1960. In 1963 he was the prosecuting counsel in the trial of Stephen Ward, who was involved in the Profumo affair, accused of living off the immoral earnings of Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies.
Griffith-Jones was a councillor in Westminster City Council from 1948 to 1954. He became a judge in 1964, presiding over criminal cases at the Old Bailey as the Common Serjeant of London.
Griffith-Jones died aged 70 in 1979. His son, Robin Griffith-Jones, is the current Reverend and Valiant Master of the Temple.
Portrayal in popular culture
Mervyn Griffith-Jones has been portrayed by the following actors in film, television and theater productions;
- Jonathan Newth in the 1984 British film Champions
- Daniel Massey in the 1989 British film Scandal
- Pip Torrens in the 2006 British television production The Chatterley Affair
- Paul Hickey in the 2006 British television docudrama Nuremberg: Nazis on Trial