Introduction

To be completed.

See Ann Lyon: 'A Reaction to Popular Hysteria: The Titles Deprivation Act 1917' Liverpool Law Review Spring-Summer 2000, 22:173-207.

Titles Deprivation Act (1917)

7 & 8 GEO. 5. CHAPTER 47.

An Act to deprive Enemy Peers and Princes of British Dignities and Titles.  [8th November 1917.]

BE it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows :

1.—

  1. His Majesty may appoint a committee of His Privy Council, of  which two members at least shall be members of the Judicial Committee , to enquire into and report the names of any persons enjoying any dignity or title as a peer or British prince who have, during the present war, borne arms against His Majesty or His Allies, or who have adhered to His Majesty's enemies.
  2. The Committee shall have power to take evidence on oath and to administer all oath for the purpose, and may, if they think fit, act upon any evidence given either orally or by affidavit based on information and belief, the grounds of which are stated.
  3. Such report shall be laid upon the table of both Houses of Parliament for the space of forty days, and, if by that time there has not been passed in either House a motion disapproving of the report, it shall be taken as final and presented to His Majesty.
  4. Where the name of any peer or prince is included in the report, then from and after the date of the presentation of the report to His Majesty—
    1. The name of such person, if he be a peer, shall be struck out of the Peerage Roll, and all rights of such peer to receive a writ of summons and to sit in the House of Lords or to take part in the election of representative peers shall cease and determine :
    2. All privileges and all rights to any dignity or title, whether in respect of a peerage or under any Royal Warrant or Letters Patent, shall cease and determine.
2. 
It shall be lawful for the successor of any peer whose name has been so removed, to present a petition to His Majesty praying to have the peerage restored and his name placed on the Peerage Roll ; and His Majesty may refer such petition to a committee of the Privy Council constituted as aforesaid ; and should the committee be satisfied that such person has incurred no disability under this Act, and is well affected to His  Majesty's Person and Government, His Majesty may thereuponon direct that the peerage be restored and the name of the petitioner be placed on the Peerage Roll ; whereupon all rights and  privileges of the holder of the peerage shall revive and be in force as if the name of the peer had never been removed from the Roll.

3.—

  1. Nothing in this Act shall affect the title or succession of any person to any estates or other property.
  2. The powers conferred upon His Majesty this Act shall be in addition to, and not in derogation of, any other powers of His Majesty.


4.—

  1. This Act may be cited as the Titles Deprivation Act, 1917.
  2. In this Act the expression " enemy " shall be construed as referring to the enemies of His Majesty in the present war, and, for the purposes of this Act, a person shall be deemed to have adhered to His Majesty's enemies if since the commencement of the present war he has voluntarily resided in an enemy country or if he has served in the enemy forces or in any way rendered assistance to the enemy.

Order in Council (28 March 1919)

(Source: Statutory Rules & Orders and Statutory Instruments Revised to December 31, 1948, vol. 22, p. 681)

ORDER IN COUNCIL ACCEPTING REPORT OF COMMITTEE OF THE PRIVY COUNCIL UNDER THE TITLES DEPRIVATION ACT, 1917 (7 & 8 GEO. 5 c. 47) AS TO FORFEITURE OF BRITISH DIGNITIES AND TITLES OF CERTAIN ENEMY PEERS AND PRINCES.

1919 No. 475

At the Court at Buckingham Palace, the 28th day of March, 1919.

PRESENT,

The King's Most Excellent Majesty in Council.

Seeing that there was this day presented to His Majesty at the Board a Report of a Committee of the Lords of His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council (Present: The Lord Chancellor, The Marquess of Lansdowne, The Marquess of Crewe, the Lord Chamberlain, the Lord Newton, the Lord Stamfordham, the Lord Sumner), dated the 1st day of August, 1918, in the words following, viz.:

" Whereas by virtue of the powers granted under ' The Titles Deprivation Act, 1917,' Your Majesty in Council was pleased by Order of the 27th day of November, 1917, to appoint a Committee of Your Privy Council to inquire into and report the names of any persons enjoying any dignity or title as a peer or British prince who have during the present war borne arms against Your Majesty or Your Allies or who have adhered to Your Majesty's enemies, and inasmuch as the Committee have considered the matters submitted to them in accordance with the aforesaid terms of reference and have carefully examined the evidence set forth in the two affidavits sworn to by Your Majesty's Procurator-General and Solicitor for the affairs of Your Majesty's Treasury, dated respectively the 25th and 27th July, 1918, copies of which are annexed to this Report:

" Their Lordships do humbly report to Your Majesty that the persons hereinafter named have adhered to Your Majesty's enemies during the present war:—
His Royal Highness Leopold Charles, Duke of Albany, Earl of Clarence and Baron Arklow.
His Royal Highness Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, Earl of Armagh.
His Royal Highness Ernest Augustus (Duke of Brunswick), Prince of Great Britain and Ireland.
Henry, Viscount Taaffe of Corren and Baron of Ballymote."

And seeing that the Report has been laid before Parliament in the manner prescribed, and there has not been passed in either House a motion disapproving thereof:

His Majesty, having taken into consideration the said Report, was pleased, by and with the advice of His Privy Council, to accept the same.

Whereof Garter King of Arms, Ulster King of Arms, and all other persons whom it may concern are to take notice and govern themselves accordingly.

Almeric FitzRoy.
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Last modified: Nov 26, 2003