E A Mitchell-Innes KC

Major Edward Alfred Mitchell Innes KC CBE went to Wellington, first to the Talbot and then the Blücher in 1876. He was the chief supporter of the Literary and Debating Societies in his time and become a Prefect before winning a scholarship to Balliol.

He was called to the Bar at the Middle Temple in 1894 and joined the North Eastern Circuit. He was Recorder of Middlesborough 1915-28, a Bencher of the Middle Temple from 1918, Chairman of Hertfordshire Quarter Sessions from 1924; the Recorder of Leeds from 1928, a Commissioner of Assize, Midland Circuit from 1930, Chancellor of the Diocese of Ripon from 1929 and Solicitor-General for Co.Palatine of Durham from 1930. In 1931 he became chairman of the Bar Council. He had previously served as vice-chairman of the Council for four years.

He was a committed Hertfordshire man, being Mayor and Bailiff of Hemel Hempstead , a JP and a Deputy Lieutenant for Hertfordshire. His commitment extended to his military service  a territorial with the 2nd (Hertfordshire) Battalion of the Bedfords, and went on to serve in the Great War, rising to the rank of Major.

He was a member of the Travellers’.

Mitchell-Innes was another of those members of the Lodge initiated into masonry at University, in this case by Apollo University Lodge No 357 whilst he was at Balliol. He joined the lodge in June 1910, and became Worshipful Deputy Master in 1921, the year the PSLC Festival was held at Wellington. The Wellington Yearbook recalls “No one who was present in the Gymnasium on that occasion will forget dignity and charm with which he carried out his duties; if anyone could be described as silver-tongued, it was surely Mitchell-Innes”.

He was also a member of Northern Bar Lodge No 1610, Hertfordshire Regiment Lodge No 4537 and a founder of the Old Berkhamstedian Lodge No 4903. He was exalted into Inns of Court Chapter No 1610. He was made Senior Grand Deacon in 1926, and Grand Registrar by Grand Lodge in 1930.