Background
Bayne, Hugh Aiken was born on February 15, 1870 in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Son of Thomas Levingston and Anna Maria (Gayle) Bayne.
Bayne, Hugh Aiken was born on February 15, 1870 in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Son of Thomas Levingston and Anna Maria (Gayle) Bayne.
Bayne attended Yale University, where he graduated in 1892 with an Bachelor of Arts. He would later receive an honorary Doctor of Laws from Tulane University.
While at Yale, he published The Tales of Temple Bar: A Prologue (1891), a collection of his comic writing for campus humor magazine The Yale Record. In the same year he was admitted to the bar, and began the practice of law in New Orleans. Bayne moved to New York City in 1898, where he would continue the practice of law until 1919.
During World War I he served as a major judge advocate in the Adjutant Generals Office, as a counsel on the Prisoners of War Mission and served on the Liquidation Commission of the War Department.
He was made a Lieutenant Colonel in 1919, but he never fought in any battles. After the war he served on the Reparations Commission under the treaties of Versailles and Saint Germain.
During this time he served as a judge deciding the claim of Belgium versus Austria, regarding the Treasure of the Order of Golden Fleece.
The King of Belgium requested that the treasure be transferred to him as the new ruler of the former Habsburg lands of the Austrian Netherlands.
The three judges, of whom Bayne was one gave serious consideration to handing the treasure over to Belgium. However at the request of Emperor Carl, King Alfonso XIII of Spain intervened and the treasure remained in Austrian hands. He also handled the claim of Czecho-Slovakia being the successor to the Kingdom of Bohemia, and a claim regarding 500 works of art stolen from Bohemia by Austria between 1616 and 1914.
One of the most interesting claims he handled was Standard Oil Company versus the Reparations Commission.
The commission had appropriated 21 oil tankers owned by a Germany subsidiary of Standard Oil to pay for Germans reparations. He also handled cases on disarmament clauses.
Served as major judge advocate, United States Army, 1917, in France, Judge-Advocate, South.O.S., of American Expeditionary Force, counsel Prisoners of War Mission, 1918, lieutenant colonel, 1919. Clubs: Yale (New York).
Married Helen Cheney, October 8, 1895. Married second, Emily Ford, 1919 (died 1937). Children: Helen, Elizabeth C.