The Inner Temple Yearbook 2021–2022
What Really Happened in Liversidge v Anderson?
WHAT REALLY HAPPENED IN LIVERSIDGE V ANDERSON? By Master Inigo Bing
Every barrister has heard of the case of Liversidge v Anderson, whether from practice, law school or exam cramming. It was about a detainee called Robert Liversidge, interned under emergency powers in the Second World War, who took a civil action for false imprisonment against the Home Secretary John Anderson. The action failed, but the case is remembered for Lord Atkin’s dissenting speech in the House of Lords when he protested against a construction of words which would give uncontrolled power of imprisonment to a minister. The House of Lords had to decide what the words ‘reasonable cause to believe’ meant and, apart from Lord Atkin, the House ruled the words meant the minister must believe he has reasonable cause to believe. That construction, Lord Atkin protested, showed judges to be “more executive minded than the executive”.
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Nowadays, Lord Atkin’s approach to the judicial role in setting limits to executive power is preferred, but at the time Lord Atkin’s forthright dissent was controversial. Liversidge v Anderson is an important case, but it has never been examined from the vantage point of the facts, which, until recently, have been a closely guarded secret. Liversidge’s Security Services files were only declassified in 2012 and only now can the true story of his detention without trial be told. It is a remarkable tale of anti-Semitic prejudice, entrapment by the intelligence services and the liberality of Mr Justice Birkett, formerly Norman Birkett KC, who played a crucial part in securing Liversidge’s release. Robert William Liversidge was born Jacob Perlzweig in 1904, the son of a rabbi who had fled Russia to make a family home in London. Jacob’s brother was also a rabbi on the executive of the World Zionist Federation when war was declared in 1939. It is beyond doubt that Jacob Perlzweig was not a Nazi sympathiser. He was a successful businessman with a substantial property portfolio. In 1926, he was on friendly terms with a man called Dore Baumberg, who was convicted at the Old Bailey of fraudulently obtaining share certificates from a widow. Liversidge later freely admitted that he had disposed of the certificates on the open market, although he did not know they had been obtained by fraud. The police continued to believe that Jacob Perlzweig was involved in the original deception, but he was never put on trial. He had left London in 1927, believing that better business opportunities lay abroad. In America, he met a man called Schapiro who had apparently committed a share swindle in New York. There was a suggestion that Perlzweig may have been his accomplice, but he was never charged with any offence. In California, he helped develop sound-recording equipment for the Hollywood studios, which were in transition from ‘silent’ movies to the ‘talkies’. When Robert William Liversidge, as he was now known, went to Canada on business he realised, in 1931, his British passport had expired and he needed a new one if he was to return to Britain.
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He then made a serious and costly mistake, which involved deceit. He applied for a Canadian passport in the name of Liversidge and falsely stated he had Canadian parentage and had been born in Toronto in 1901. These declarations were, of course, false, but he returned to Britain in 1936 on the Canadian passport. The following year, with the assistance of his solicitor, Lewis Silkin, he changed his name by deed poll to Robert William Liversidge. From that moment on, he was legally Robert Liversidge, and his company and personal business was conducted in that name. He was successful, rich and patriotic. On the day Germany invaded Poland, 1 September 1939, he applied for a commission as an officer in the RAF. He was, on the face of it, a most unlikely candidate for internment under emergency wartime regulations on the grounds of his “hostile associations”. But this is exactly what happened in May 1940 after he had given nearly nine months of unblemished service to his country in the Fighter Command of the Royal Air Force. He was arrested, detained and not finally released until December 1941, by which time he had become an embarrassment to the authorities. The story of his detention for a period of 18 months in Brixton Prison is shameful and reveals anti-Semitic prejudice, which infected the view the authorities took of him.
He was successful, rich and patriotic. On the day Germany invaded Poland, 1 September 1939, he applied for a commission as an officer in the RAF. The tale begins in March 1940 when three alien detainees, all German Jews, were apparently planning to offer bribes to secure their release. For some reason, Liversidge’s business address cropped up in their plot, and this set in train the events which led to his arrest and detention. He was labelled, in MI5 files, “an international crook who fled the country in 1927”. This is a reference to the Baumberg and Schapiro swindles for which he was never questioned or charged. However, by early April 1940, he was believed to be “connected with subversive activities to release aliens in internment camps”, although this allegation was never substantiated. When Special Branch discovered that Liversidge was born Jacob Perlzweig, the authorities jumped on this as it demonstrated that Robert Liversidge was an imposter. This was a misconception as it was not fraudulent for Liversidge to use his adopted name, changed by deed poll, to apply to join the RAF. Nor was he a “crook”. However, for Special Branch and MI5, Liversidge was a suspicious individual who should be watched. His bank accounts were scrutinised, his house was searched, his telephone was tapped and his safe deposit box was opened, all under wartime warrants, which were permitted “for the purposes of defence of the Realm and the efficient promotion of the war”. Nothing to Liversidge’s detriment was discovered.
