A Queen's Counsel (post-nominal QC), or King's Counsel (post-nominal KC) during the reign of a king, is an eminent lawyer (usually a barrister or advocate) who is appointed by the monarch to be one of "Her Majesty's Counsel learned in the law." The term is recognised as an honorific. Appointments are made from within the legal profession on the basis of merit rather than a particular level of experience. Members have the privilege of sitting within the bar of court. As members wear silk gowns of a particular design (see court dress), appointment as Queen's Counsel is known informally as taking silk, and hence QCs are often colloquially called silks.

The rank emerged in the sixteenth century, but came to prominence over the course of the nineteenth. Appointment was open to barristers only until 1995. The first women KCs had been appointed only in 1949. In 1951, 20 people were appointed, all of them men.

1952

22 April 1952 NameInns of CourtUniversityNotesRefEdward Johnson Rimmer, AMICELincoln's Inn (1912)University of LiverpoolBorn in 1883, Rimmer went to Bickerton House School before reading engineering at the University of Liverpool; he graduated BEng from Liverpool in 1904 and BSc from the Victoria University of Manchester in the same year. He trained in civil engineering with J. T. Wood before working as the assistant engineer at S. Pearson & Sons at the Port Works in Salina Cruz from 1905 until 1908 or 1909. In 1908, he became an Associate Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Between 1909 and 1912, he read for the bar exam under the barrister A. R. Kennedy. After being called to the bar, he practised on the Northern Circuit. He served in the Royal Engineers during the First World War and was then Director of the Federation of Civil Engineering Contractors (1919–24). He became a Bencher of Lincoln's Inn in 1955. He published The Law Relating to the Architect (1952) and edited with I. N. Duncan Wallace the eighth edition of Hudson's Law of Building and Engineering Contracts (1959). Rimmer died in 1962, leaving a wife and two children."Obituary: Edward Johnson Rimmer, 1883–1962", Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, vol. 24, no. 4 (1963), p. 575.

The Victoria University of Manchester: Register of Graduates Up to July 1st, 1908 (Manchester: Victoria University of Manchester, 1908), p. 301.

"Rimmer, Edward Johnson", Who Was Who (online ed., Oxford University Press, December 2019). Retrieved 24 March 2020.

"Mr. E. J. Rimmer, QC", The Law Journal, vol. 112 (1962), p. 375.Phineas Quass, OBE, FRSMInner Temple (1916)St John's College, CambridgeQuass attended the private University College School and while there completed the BSc at the University of London in 1909. He then went up to Cambridge on a natural science scholarship, graduating with a BA in 1912 before completing a Tripos (Part II) paper in law the next year. He volunteered to serve in the First World War, but was deemed physically unfit for combat service and was eventually employed in the Ministry of Food as a civil servant; he was appointed an OBE in 1920 in recognition of his work there. By then, he was already a barrister and thereafter built up his practice; this eventually extended to Commonwealth countries including Ghana, Nigeria, Ceylon and Australia, where he acted for the defence in several high-profile trials. He was also a constitutional adviser to the government in Uganda. In 1960, he was elected a Bencher of the Inner Temple. He was also treasurer of the Medico-Legal Association, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine and a council member for the Institute for the Study and Treatment of Delinquency. He died in 1961, leaving a widow and two daughters; a son had predeceased him.Emanuel Miller, "Mr. Phineas Quass", The British Journal of Criminology, vol. 2, no. 2 (1961), pp. 109–110.

"Mr. Phineas Quass", The Times (London), 30 September 1961, p. 10.

"Index of Graduates by Surname: Q", University of London: The Historical Record, 1836–1926 (London: University of London Press, 1926) – via British History Online.

The Law Journal, vol. 110 (1960), p. 510.Frank GahanInner Temple (1921)Trinity College, Toronto University of London

Trinity College, OxfordGahan was born in 1890 into an Ontarian family; he went to Talbot Street School in London, Ontario, before attending Trinity College, Toronto, with a BA in 1914. After initially being medically rejected for service in the First World War in 1914, he became a clerk the Canada Pay and Records Office. In 1916, he enrolled in the 32nd Reserve Battalion and served in the Overseas Military Forces of Canada until demobilisation in 1919. He was awarded an LLB by the University of London in 1919, and then graduated from the University of Oxford with a BCL degree in 1920. He edited Mayne's Treatise on Damages (1927) and wrote The Law of Damages (1936). Between 1936 and 1945, he was Vice-Principal of the Working Men's College. In 1957, he was appointed Lieutenant Bailiff and Magistrate of Guernsey, serving until retirement in 1964. He died in 1971."Gahan, Frank", Who Was Who (online ed., Oxford University Press, December 2018). Retrieved 12 May 2019.

A. H. Young and W. A. Kirkwood, The War Memorial Volume of Trinity College, Toronto (Toronto: Trinity College, Toronto, 1920), p. 112.

"Historic Sites Committee", London Public Library. Retrieved 12 May 2019.

"Bachelor of Laws: Honours and Higher Degrees: External Students", University of London: the Historical Record (1836–1926), pp. 161–163. Retrieved via British History Online, 12 May 2019.Cecil Harry Andrew Bennett, CBEInner Temple (1922)"Calls to the Bar", The Times (London), 29 June 1922, p. 6.Pembroke College, Cambridge University of ParisBorn in 1898, Bennett served as an officer with the Royal Garrison Artillery in the First World War from 1915 to 1919. He graduated from Cambridge with an LLB in 1920, and also completed a Licencié-ès-Droit at the University of Paris. He was appointed Advocate-General to the Anglo-Egyptian Sudanese Government in 1936 and was Attorney-General from 1941 to 1943 before being appointed Chief Justice of Sudan in 1944. He was then made a puisne judge of the Patna High Court in 1946, and then became a legal adviser to the United Kingdom's High Commissioners in India and Pakistan in 1947. He became Legal Counsellor to the British Administration in Eritrea five years later; and then served on the Supreme Restitution Court for Berlin from 1953 to 1962, and as a British Member of the German Arbitral Commission on Property Rights and Interests from 1955 to his death in 1967, only months after he had been appointed a CBE."Bennett, Cecil Harry Andrew", Who Was Who (online ed., Oxford University Press, December 2018). Retrieved 12 May 2019.

Register of the University of Cambridge (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1939), p. 532.Nelson Edwin MustoeGray's Inn (1922)Trinity College DublinMustoe was born in Woodstock, South Africa, in 1896. He was educated at Trinity College Dublin, graduating in 1921 with LLB and BA degrees. Three years after being called to the bar in 1922, he joined the Inland Revenue Solicitor's Department and remained there until 1939, when he set up private practice. He was an expert on tax law and edited the 2nd and 3rd edition of Simon's Income Tax (1952–66), the British Tax Encyclopedia (1962, as consulting editor) and the series of Taxation Reports (from 1939). He was also author of a number books relating to tax and land law. Outside of his legal work, Mustoe maintained an interest in African affairs; he was chairman of the Britain and South Africa Forum, the South Africa Settlement Association (1954–65) and the Anglo-Ethiopian Society (1956–62). From 1966 to 1970, he was Vice-President of the Royal African Society, but he garnered controversy in 1970 when he defended South Africa's Apartheid regime as "moral, feasible and reasonable"; he received criticism from many including authors to the RAS's journal African Affairs. This led to his resignation from his offices at the RSA. For the 1970–71 year he was Master of the Worshipful Company of Glaziers. He died in 1976 and was survived by his second wife, the headmistress and travel writer Anne Mustoe, and three children from his first marriage."Mr Nelson Mustoe, QC", The Times (London), 10 April 1976, p. 16.

Chris Youé, "The Royal African Society, African Affairs and Apartheid: the Mustoe controversy of 1970", African Affairs (April 2014). Retrieved 25 March 2020.

Who Was Who Among English and European Authors, 1931–1949 (Gale Research Co., 1978), p. 1032.

The Dublin University Calendar for the Year 1922–23 (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1922), pp. 376, 483.

"Anne Mustoe", The Daily Telegraph, 11 December 2009. Retrieved 26 March 2020.Maurice Gravenor HewinsLincoln's Inn (1923)Christ Church, OxfordHewins was born in 1897, the only son of the economist and politician William Hewins (to whom he was official private secretary at the Colonial Office in 1918). He attended Westminster School then Oxford, graduating in 1921; after being called in 1923, he practised at the Chancery bar. He died in 1953."Hewins, Maurice Gravenor", Who Was Who (online ed., Oxford University Press, December 2018). Retrieved 12 May 2019.

"Obituary", Justice of the Peace and Local Government Review (1953), p. 723.

The Catholic Who's Who 1952, vol. 35 (London: Burns & Oates, 1952), p. 207.John Bussé, CBEInner Temple (1925)Corpus Christi College, CambridgeBussé (born 1903) was tutored privately before studying at the University of Cambridge, where he read history and law. Called the bar in 1925, he practised on the Oxford circuit, and was vice-chairman of the Price Regulation Committee from 1945 to 1953 (for which service he was appointed CBE in 1948). He was also Recorder of Burton-on-Trent (1947–56). In 1956, he was appointed Recorder of Gloucester, but became ill on the day that he was sworn in and died shortly afterwards. He was survived by his wife and a son. In his early years at the bar, he had had literary ambitions and published a biography of Elizabeth Montagu (Mrs Montagu: Queen of the Blues) in 1928."Mr. John Bussé, Q.C.", The Times (London), 28 September 1956, p. 13.