Background
Hemphill was born in County Tyrone, Ireland. He was the son of John and the novelist Barbara Hemphill.
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
Charles Hare
Edit ProfileCareer
He was made a Queen"s Counsel (Queen's Counsel) shortly before being appointed Solicitor-General for Ireland in 1892, a post he held until 1895. While most Irish Law Officers could confidently look forward to promotion to the Bench, Hemphill"s age apparently ruled him out of serious consideration. As Solicitor-General, he is remembered mainly for the somewhat malicious "compliments" paid to him by the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, Sir Peter O"Brien, in the celebrated 1894 case of R. (Bridgeman) v.
Drury.
Lord Hemphill married Augusta Mary, daughter of Major the Honorary Sir Francis Charles Stanhope, in 1849. the Honorary May Hamilton (1879-1970), daughter of James, 9th Lord Belhaven and Stenton). Hemphill was a cousin of John Hemphill, a Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court, and a United States Senator, whose father was the Review
John Hemphill from County Tyrone.
Membership
26th United Kingdom Parliament. 27th United Kingdom Parliament]
He then sat as Member of Parliament for North Tyrone from 1895 to 1906, after which he was elevated to the peerage as Baron Hemphill, of Rathkenny and of Cashel in the County of Tipperary. Hemphill, who appeared for Dublin Corporation, had argued, apparently with a good deal of hyperbole, that the members of the Corporation were entitled to charge the ratepayers of Dublin for an especially lavish picnic.
The Lord Chief Justice paid ironic tribute to Hemphill"s eloquence and persuasiveness, but added drily that he had entirely failed to persuade the Court that the members of the Corporation would "starve" if they were unable to make the ratepayers foot the bill for fine claret, whiskey and cigars, to say nothing of the broken wineglasses (although there were only four of them, which the judge fairly noted seemed quite moderate in the circumstances).
