Basil Wigoder

Basil Thomas Wigoder, Baron Wigoder QC (12 February 1921 to 12 August 2004) was a British barrister and Liberal Party politician. Regarded as one of the leading criminal barristers of his generation, he practised mainly in criminal law and became known for his defence of individual rights. He later sat in the House of Lords as a life peer, where he served as the Liberal Chief Whip from 1977 to 1984.

Early life and education Wigoder was born in Manchester on 12 February 1921 into a Jewish family that had originally settled in Dublin before establishing branches in Manchester and Leeds. His father was Dr Philip Wigoder, a dentist, and his mother was Ruth Wigoder, a justice of the peace. He was brought up in the Cheetham district of Manchester, from which he later took his title. Serving with the 30th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery, he saw action in Italy, including the Battle of Monte Cassino, the liberation of Rome and the fighting around Florence, and in the British intervention in Greece in 1944 and 1945.

After the war he returned to Oriel College to complete his degree, taking his MA in 1946, and was elected President of the Oxford Union and of the university Liberal Club. One of his earliest cases after taking silk was the successful defence, before Mr Justice Thesiger, of a man accused of murdering another guest at a party in Notting Hill. At Gray's Inn he was elected a Master of the Bench in 1972 and served as Vice-Treasurer in 1988 and Treasurer in 1989. He served as the Liberal Party's Deputy Whip in the House of Lords from 1976 to 1977 and as its Chief Whip there from 1977 to 1984, and from 1983 to 1988 he was the party's spokesman on home affairs and the health service.