Sir Gerald B. (Gerald Berkeley) Hurst

Born in Bradford on December 4, 1877, Sir Gerald Berkeley Hurst was educated at Bradford Grammar School and Lincoln College, Oxford. Trained in law, he built a career as a barrister and later became a King's Counsel. During the First World War he served as a lieutenant in the British Army, with service in the Middle East and France.

Hurst was also active in politics, serving as Conservative MP for Manchester Moss Side from 1918 to 1923 and again from 1924 to 1935. He was knighted in 1929 and later held judicial roles, including work as a county court judge and as Commissioner of Divorce Cases. He was born Gerald Berkeley Hertz and changed the spelling of his surname to Hurst in 1916.

As an author, he is associated with works such as The Old Colonial System and with writing connected to military and public history. His career suggests a writer deeply engaged with the institutions of Britain and its empire, bringing a lawyer's precision and a politician's eye for public questions to his books.