[1st Baron]. English lawyer and Master of the Rolls, born at Letheringsett Hall, Dereham, Norfolk, on the 22nd of November 1838, the son of William Cozens-Hardy, a Nonconformist solicitor in large practice at Norwich. He was educated at Amersham school and afterwards at London University, where he took his degree in 1858. He was called to the bar in 1862, and built up a large and very successful connection, chiefly in Nonconformist and Liberal circles. He became a Q.C. in 1882, and was raised to the bench in 1890. In 1885 he was returned as Liberal member for Norfolk, retaining the seat until 1899. In 1901 he was made a lord of appeal, and in 1907 Master of the Rolls. In August 1913 he was appointed one of the three commissioners of the great seal during the absence of Lord Chancellor Haldane in Canada. In 1914 he was raised to the peerage, and in 1918 resigned the office of Master of the Rolls, being succeeded by Lord Swinfen. He died at Letheringsett Hall on the 18th of June 1920.
