On This Day

30 December 1935

Death of Rufus Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading, the last Liberal Foreign Secretary

Isaacs was the son of a Jewish fruit merchant in Spitalfields but rose through the law and politics to hold some of the highest offices of state both legal and political. Along with Lloyd George, Reading was almost brought down by the Marconi Scandal of 1913 implicated in insider share dealing but survived. He went on to be High Commissioner and Special Ambassador to the USA in 1919, served as Lord Chief Justice of England and was Viceroy of India from 1921-26.