Reginald Paget, Baron Paget of Northampton

Reginald Thomas Guy Des Voeux Paget, Baron Paget of Northampton, QC (2 September 1908 – 2 January 1990), also known as Reginald Guy Thomas Du Voeux Paget, was a British lawyer and Labour politician.

Career The son of Major Guy Paget, he was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he read law, but did not graduate. Paget joined the Labour Party whilst he was an undergraduate at Cambridge, a decision made striking by the fact that his family had produced five generations of Conservative and Liberal MPs. He was called to the bar in 1934.

He stood as the Labour candidate for Northampton in 1935, but was not elected. During World War II he served in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (1940–43). After the war, he was advocate for Field Marshal Erich von Manstein during his trial for war crimes. He later wrote Manstein: His Campaigns and His Trial (1957). From 1960 to 1964, Paget successively served as junior opposition spokesman for the Royal Navy and the Army. During his tenure in the House of Commons, he was an independent voice, playing a major role in the campaign to abolish capital punishment. He was a strong opponent of the execution of Derek Bentley and argued for Timothy Evans to be posthumously pardoned for the murder of his child (a crime widely believed to have been committed by John Christie).

Paget was an outspoken critic of Harold Wilson during the 1963 Labour Party leadership election,

Paget was initially supportive of British entry into the European Economic Community (EEC), and in 1954 became Secretary of the UK Council of the European Movement.

On 2 January 1975, he was created a life peer as Baron Paget of Northampton, of Lubenham in Leicestershire.

Paget was said to be the slowest speaker in the House of Commons and was master of the Pytchley Hunt from 1968 to 1971, an unusual position for a Labour MP.