John Hobson (politician)
Sir John Gardiner Sumner Hobson, OBE, TD, PC, QC was a British Conservative Party politician.Life and career
Hobson was born in Melton Mowbray, the son of an officer in the 12th Royal Lancers. Hobson was educated at Harrow and Brasenose College, Oxford, graduating with a second-class degree in History in 1934. Hobson was called to the bar by the Inner Temple in 1938. He became a Queen's Counsel in 1957, and was Recorder of Northampton from 1958 to 1962. During World War II he served with the Northamptonshire Yeomanry, reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel. For his military service, he was appointed OBE and mentioned in dispatches.
He was first elected to the House of Commons at a 1957 by-election in the Warwick and Leamington constituency, caused by the resignation due to ill-health of the Conservative MP and former Prime Minister, Anthony Eden. He held the seat at the next three general elections. In 1959 Hobson represented suspected serial-killer Dr John Bodkin Adams in his failed attempt to be reinstated as a doctor.
He was appointed Solicitor General in 1962, receiving the customary knighthood, and serving in that post for five months before taking over as Attorney General until the Conservatives lost the 1964 general election. In 1962 he led the prosecution of the spy John Vassall. He was appointed to the Privy Council in 1963.
He approved the “sordid deal” whereby Anthony Blunt was given immunity from prosecution
He died in 1967, aged 55, of an undiagnosed brain tumour.
