SIMON, SIR JOHN

SIMON, SIR JOHN (1818–1897), English lawyer and politician. Simon was the first Jew to practice at the common law bar and exercise the functions of a judge. Born in Jamaica, the son of a merchant, Simon went to England in 1833, graduated from London University in 1841, and was called to the bar a year later. After practicing in Jamaica for two years he returned to England, where he quickly won distinction in the courts. In 1858 he was junior counsel in the state trial following the Orsini conspiracy, a cause célèbre surrounding the attempted assassination of Napoleon III, and in the same year became an assistant to the judges of the county courts. He was later appointed president of the City of London court and became a sergeant-at-law in 1864 and a queen's counsel in January 1868. From 1868 until 1888 Simon was Liberal member of Parliament for Dewsbury. In the House of Commons he availed himself of every opportunity to champion the cause of oppressed Jewry throughout the world, and his efforts to arouse public opinion against the Russian pogroms led the lord mayor of London to convene a public meeting at Guildhall to register British indignation at the czarist persecution of Jews. His devotion to the Jewish cause in parliament led him to be known as "the member for Jewry." Simon was a founder of the Anglo-Jewish Association and a member of the Reform Synagogue. He was not related to either of the other prominent non-Jewish men with the same name as his, the Victorian surgeon and officer of health (1816–1904) or the barrister and cabinet minister (1873–1954), with whom he is sometimes confused. His son OSWALD JOHN SIMON (1855–1932) followed in his father's footsteps and continued to draw the attention of the British public to the plight of East European Jewry. -ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: ODNB online.