George Coldstream

Who was George Coldstream?

Sir George Phillips Coldstream was a British barrister and civil servant who served as Permanent Secretary to the Lord Chancellor's Department and Clerk of the Crown in Chancery from 4 June 1954 to 5 April 1968. Born to an upper-middle-class family, Coldstream was educated at Rugby School and Oriel College, Oxford, where he read law. In 1930 he was called to the Bar by Lincoln's Inn, but worked as a barrister for only four years before he was recruited into the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel, where he served as Assistant to the Parliamentary Counsel to the Treasury.

In 1939 he became a legal assistant in the Lord Chancellor's Department, and in 1944 became Deputy Permanent Secretary to the Lord Chancellor's Department. When Sir Albert Napier retired as Permanent Secretary in 1954, Coldstream succeeded him, as per convention. As Permanent Secretary Coldstream served under four Lord Chancellors and was described as "one of the 10 men who run Britain". He helped draft the Life Peerages Act 1958, the Peerage Act 1963 and what became the Royal Assent Act 1967.

He also served on the Beeching Commission, helped create the Law Commission and played a part in appointing judges now recognised as particularly influential, including Lords Denning, Devlin and Diplock. After retirement on 5 April 1968, Coldstream continued to advise the government, and served as chairman of the Council of Legal Education from 1970 to 1973. He died on 19 April 2004 in Seaford, East Sussex