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Hartley William Shawcross was born to John and Hilda Shawcross in Germany, whilst his father was teaching English at Giessen University. He was educated at Dulwich College, the London School of Economics and University of Geneva and sat for the Bar at Gray's Inn, where he won first-class honours. He was the youngest man ever to be made King's Counsel.
He joined Labour at a young age, and served as Member of Parliament from St HelensSt Helens is the name of several places: St Helens, Merseyside St Helens, Isles of Scilly St. Helen's, a parish in Bishopsgate, London St Helens, Tasmania, Australia The Barons St Helens Alleyne Fitzherbert, 1st Baron St Helens Mount St. Helens St. Helens from 1945Events January January 5 The Soviet Union recognizes the new pro-Soviet government of Poland. January 7 British General Bernard Montgomery holds a press conference in which he claims credit for victory in the Battle of the Bulge. January 12 World War II: to 1958Events January January 1 Treaty of Rome founding the EU is implemented January 4 Sputnik 1 falls to Earth from its orbit (launched on October 4 1957) January 8 14 year old Bobby Fischer wins the United States Chess Championship January 18 Armed Lumbee Nat, holding the position of Attorney-General from 1945 to 1951Events January events January 9 United Nations headquarters officially opens ( New York City). January 15 Ilse Koch, The "Witch of Buchenwald," wife of the commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp, is sentenced to life imprisonment in a court in We. It was in 1946Events January January 4 Theodore Schurch becomes the last person to be executed for offences committed under the Treachery Act of 1940 January 7 Allied recognize Austrian republic with 1937 borders the country is divided into four occupation zones Januar when debating the repeal of anti- Union laws in the House of CommonsThe House of Commons is a component of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also includes the Sovereign and the House of Lords. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 659 members, who are known as "Members of Parliamen that Shawcross made the "We are the masters at the moment" comment (widely misquoted as "We are the masters now") that came to haunt him.
As Attorney-General, he prosecuted William Joyce ("Lord Haw-Haw") and John Amery for treason and also prosecuted Klaus Fuchs and Alan Nunn May , for giving atomic secrets to the Soviet Union and John George Haigh (the acid bath murderer) for murder. He was knighted in 1945 and named Chief Prosecutor for the United Kingdom at Nuremberg. From 1945 to 1949, he was Britain's principal United Nations delegate and in 1951, he briefly served as President of the Board of Trade until the Labour government's defeat in the election of that year. He ended his law career in 1957, and resigned from Parliament in 1958, saying he was tired of party politics. He was made one of Britain's first life peers on February 14, 1959 as Baron Shawcross, of Friston , Sussex, and sat in the House of Lords as a cross-bencher.
He was instrumental in the foundation of the University of Sussex and was served as chancellor of the university from 1965 to 1985.
Lord Shawcross was married three times. His first wife Alberta Rosita Shyvers (m. May 24, 1924) suffered from multiple sclerosis and committed suicide on December 30, 1943. His second wife Joan Winifred Mather (m. September 21, 1944) died in a riding accident on the Sussex Downs on January 26, 1974. At the age of 95 he married Mrs. Susanne Monique Huiskamp on April 18, 1997 in Gibraltar.
He had a son, (the author and historian William Shawcross ) and daughter Joanna by his second wife.
He died at home at Cowbeech, East Sussex at the age of 101, the last surviving member of Clement Attlee's government.