John Allsebrook Simon, 1st Viscount Simon, GCSI, GCVO, OBE, PC (28 February 1873 – 11 January 1954) was a British politician who held senior Cabinet posts from the beginning of the First World War to the end of the Second. He is one of only three people to have served as Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer, the others being R. A. Butler and James Callaghan. He also served as Lord Chancellor, the most senior position in the British legal system. Beginning his career as a Liberal (identified with the left-wing and later the right-wing of the Party), he joined the National Government in 1931, creating the Liberal National Party in the process. At the end of his career he was, essentially, a Conservative. Simon was born in a terraced house on Moss Side, Manchester, the eldest child and only son of Edwin Simon (1843–1920) and Fanny Allsebrook (1846–1936). His father was a Congregationalist minister like three of his five brothers and was pastor of Zion Chapel in Hulme District, Manchester; his mother was a farmer's daughter and a descendant of Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury. Congregational Ministers were expected to move about the country. Simon was educated at King Edward's School, Bath, as his father was President of Somerset Congregational Union. He was then a scholar of Fettes College in Edinburgh where he was Head of School and won many prizes. He failed to win a scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford, but won an open scholarship to Wadham College, Oxford. He arrived at Wadham in 1892.He achieved Seconds in Mathematics and Classical Moderations. He campaigned for Herbert Samuel for South Oxfordshire in the 1895 election and after two terms as Junior Treasurer became President of the Oxford Union in Hilary Term 1896, Simon won the Barstow Law Scholarship and graduated with a first in Greats in 1896. Simon's attendance at Wadham overlapped with those of F. E. Smith, the cricketer C.B. Fry and the journalist F. W. Hirst. Smith, Fry and Simon played in the Wadham Rugby XV together. Simon and Smith began a rivalry which lasted throughout their legal and political careers over the next thirty years. Simon was, in David Dutton's view, a finer scholar than Smith. Smith thought Simon pompous, while Simon, in the words of a contemporary, thought Smith excelled at "the cheap score". A famous – although clearly untrue – malicious story had it that F. E. Smith and Simon had tossed a coin to decide which party to join. Simon was briefly a trainee leader writer for the Manchester Guardian under C. P. Scott. Simon shared lodgings with Leo Amery whilst both were studying for the All Souls Fellowship (both were successful). He became a Fellow of All Souls in 1897.Simon left Oxford at the end of 1898[3] and was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1899. He was a pupil of A. J. Ram and then of Sir Reginald Acland. Like many barristers, his career got off to a slow start: he earned a mere £27 in his first year at the Bar. At first he earned some extra money by coaching candidates for the Bar exams. As a barrister he relied on logic and reason rather than oratory and histrionics, and excelled at simplifying complex issues. He was a brilliant advocate of complex cases before judges, although rather less so before juries. Some of his work was done on the Western Circuit at Bristol. He worked exceptionally hard, often preparing his cases through the night several nights a week. His initial lack of connections made his eventual success at the Bar all the more impressive.Simon was widowed in 1902 (see below) and took solace in his work. He became a successful lawyer and in 1903 he acted for the British Government in the Alaska boundary dispute. Even three years after his wife's death, he spent Christmas Day 1905 alone, walking aimlessly in France