Malcolm Macnaghten was educated at
Eton before going up to read History at
Trinity College, Cambridge, being elected
President of the Cambridge Union in 1890 before graduating with
1st class honours. A
Cambridge Apostle, he was
called to the Bar at
Lincoln's Inn in 1894, becoming a
Bencher in 1915 and
King's Counsel (KC) in 1919. Macnaghten sat as
Member of Parliament for
North Londonderry in 1922 and then for
Londonderry from 1922 to 1929. He was
Recorder of
Colchester from 1924 to 1928, and a
Judge of the
High Court of Justice,
King's Bench Division from 1928 to 1947. During his time as judge, he presided over the
landmark case called
Rex v Bourne where a young girl became pregnant as the result of being
raped to which a obstetric surgeon in London,
Aleck Bourne, performed an
abortion which led to him being charged under the
Offences against the Person Act 1861. Macnaughten drew upon the
Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929, and asked the jury to consider the view that the doctor was "not done in good faith for the purpose only of preserving the life of the mother". He also said the probable consequences of the continuance of the pregnancy would make her "a physical or mental wreck". and appointed a
Privy Counsellor in the
1948 New Year Honours, Macnaghten was
Commissary of the
University of Cambridge from 1926. He married Antonia the eldest daughter of social reformer
Charles Booth and had three daughters, all of whom became socialists and married communists including the artist
Peter Laszlo Peri, and one son. His youngest daughter, Anne, was a violinist who specialized in British composers like
Benjamin Britten and founded Macnaughten Concerts. Macnaghten died in 1955, aged 86. ==Arms==