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Sir Sidney Rowlatt | |
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| Born | Sidney Arthur Taylor Rowlatt (1862-07-20)20 July 1862 Cairo, Egypt |
| Died | 1 March 1945(1945-03-01) (aged 82) |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | Fettes College,Edinburgh |
| Alma mater | King's College, Cambridge |
| Occupation(s) | Barrister, judge |
| Years active | 1886-1932 |
| Board member of | Rowlatt Committee |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 6, includingJohn |
| Relatives | Justin Rowlatt (great-grandson) |
Sir Sidney Arthur Taylor Rowlatt,KCSI,PC (20 July 1862 – 1 March 1945) was a British barrister and judge, remembered in part for his presidency ofthe sedition committee that bore his name, created in 1918 by theimperial government to subjugate and controlthe independence movement inBritish India, especiallyBengal and thePunjab. The committee gave rise to theRowlatt Act, an extension of theDefence of India Act 1915.
Sidney Rowlatt was born in 1862 inCairo and brought up inAlexandria, one of the most important ports of the Mediterranean. His father was Arthur Rowlatt, sent out by theBank of England to take a post at theBank of Egypt, and his second wife Amelia, the Alexandria-born daughter of Sidney Terry, merchant. His parents married on 9 May 1860 at theAnglican church in Alexandria. Her English grandparents, John and Sarah Friend, had moved to Egypt in 1825, and the family maintained working ties there for well over a century.[citation needed]
Sidney Rowlatt was the eldest son and had several siblings, two of whom stayed in Egypt. Sir Frederick Rowlatt became Governor of theNational Bank and Charles Rowlatt became Director of Customs Administration. Fred's daughter Mary wrote a memoir of the five generations,A Family in Egypt, which was published in 1956, a few years afterthe revolution which marked the end of British rule in the country.
Sidney Terry appears to have been the grandfather ofSidney Sonnino, making Sidney Rowlatt a cousin of Italy's nineteenth prime minister.[1]
The Rowlatt children grew up in Alexandria, living above the Bank building most of the year, and decamping to the nearby beach of Ramleh during the hottest months, as his mother's family had done for generations. In 1868 the Rowlatts built a house there, one of the first buildings in the resort, on a road later renamed after Arthur Rowlatt. They also owned a Nile boat named theAblah, normally moored in Cairo.[2]
Sidney Rowlatt and his brothers were sent to Britain topreparatory andpublic schools. He attendedFettes College in Edinburgh and thenKing's College, Cambridge, where he was a distinguishedclassics scholar.[3] His younger brother John Friend Rowlatt followed him to Cambridge and acted as the non-rowing president atThe Boat Race 1892.[4]
After graduation, Sidney Rowlatt became afellow of his college and taught classics for a while atEton, where he was popular with his students.
Rowlatt decided to take up the law and wascalled to the Bar by theInner Temple in 1886. He joined theOxford circuit but made slow progress,devilling forRobert Finlay. WhenWilliam Danckwertstook silk in 1900, the post of junior counsel to theInland Revenue fell vacant and Finlay recommended Rowlatt. Then, in 1905 Finlay, nowAttorney-General, gave him the post ofTreasury devil, a role in which Rowlatt excelled with his energy and affability.[citation needed] He became abencher of the Inner Temple in 1906 and later its Treasurer.
Rowlatt was appointedRecorder ofWindsor and, in 1912, a judge of theKing's Bench Division of theHigh Court, where among other matters he heard cases in the Revenue List. He was a courteous and scholarly judge, quick to see a point and unafraid to make up his mind.[citation needed]
In 1918 he chaired the inquiry into alleged "Criminal conspiracies connected with revolutionary movements in India", theRowlatt Committee. The inquiry led to the controversial “Rowlatt Act” in 1919. This unpopular legislation provided for stricter control of the freedom of press, arrests without warrant, indefinite detention without trial, and jurylessin camera trials for proscribed political acts. The accused were denied the right to know the accusers and the evidence used in the trial.[5] Indian nationalists called for protest against the Act, which led to an unprecedented response of unrest and protests. In the Punjab, this led to theJallianwala Bagh massacre, also known as the Amritsar Massacre.[6] Accepting the report of the Repressive Laws Committee, theimperial government repealed this act in March 1922.[7]
Rowlatt was known for the many tax cases he heard, particularly between 1923 and 1932, giving clear, concise and authoritative judgements, many of which are still cited today.[8]
As a judge of the King's Bench Division, Rowlatt also heard murder trials, including that of George Stagg, who was found guilty of the murder ofAston Villa F.C. footballerTommy Ball in November 1923.[9]
Rowlatt retired in 1932 and was sworn of thePrivy Council, under an arrangement brokered with Sir Claud Schuster whereby Rowlatt delayed his retirement for a year in exchange for a privy councillorship.[citation needed] As a result, he often in theJudicial Committee of the Privy Council, where his vote was crucial in theLabour Conventions Reference, which ended the Canadian "New Deal".[citation needed] The Canadian backlash was such that it indirectly led to the end of Privy Council appeals from Canada. Rowlatt's decisions in Australian cases were also badly received in that country.[citation needed]
He chaired theRoyal Commission on Betting (1932–33) and during World War II sat as chairman of theGeneral Claims Tribunal.
Rowlatt married Elizabeth Hemmingway in 1890 and the couple had four sons and two daughters. His sonJohn Rowlatt was also a lawyer, who specialised in drafting tax legislation.[10]
Media correspondentJustin Rowlatt is Sidney's great-grandson; in February 2015, Justin became theBBC's South Asia correspondent, posted inNew Delhi, and in an article in August 2017 analysed his great-grandfather's drafting of the Rowlatt Act and the events it generated in the context of post-1947India-UK relations.[11]
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