Gervais Rentoul

Sir Gervais Squire Chittick Rentoul KC (1 August 1884 – 7 March 1946) was a British Conservative politician, barrister, magistrate and judge.

Biography He was the eldest son of Judge James Alexander Rentoul, M.P. for East Down 1890–1902, and his wife, Florence Isabella Young. James Rentoul was something of an eccentric and one contemporary newspaper reported of him that "no man, woman or child wished to see him return to East Down."

He was born in Plumstead

While at Oxford he was active in the Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS). Among the stage roles he played was Angelo in Measure for Measure (1906) and Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew (1907), a production including the professional actresses Lily Brayton as Katherine and her real-life sister Agnes as her character's sister, Bianca. After leaving Oxford he acted with the Old Stagers along with fellow barrister and OUDS alumnus C.W.Mercer, who subsequently acted as his best man. who married Ferenc Gallo.

He was elected Conservative Member of Parliament for Lowestoft in the 1922 United Kingdom general election. He was founding chairman of the 1922 Committee (1923–1932) and Parliamentary private secretary to the Attorney general (1925–1929). He became a barrister and took silk in 1930, becoming Recorder of Sandwich. He was knighted in 1929 and resigned from Parliament in 1934 on becoming a Metropolitan Police magistrate.

He was portrayed on television by Robin Sachs in the play The Root of all Evil (1981), an episode of the Granada Television series Lady Killers, a dramatisation of the Seddon murder case in 1912 in which Rentoul had appeared for the defence.

Selected publications Sometimes I Think (Hodder & Stoughton, 1940) This is My Case An Autobiography (Hutchinson, 1944)