G. A. H. Branson
Sir George Arthur Harwin Branson, PC (1871–1951), known as G. A. H. Branson, was an English barrister and High Court judge. He sat as Mr Justice Branson and was the paternal grandfather of Sir Richard Branson.
Born in Great Yarmouth, he was the son of James Henry Arthur Branson, a senior magistrate in Calcutta, and Mary Ann Brown. He studied at Bedford School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he earned the Classical Tripos, captained First Trinity, and rowed in the Cambridge Boat Race of 1893.
After Cambridge, he trained as a solicitor, joined the Inner Temple, and was called to the bar in 1899, joining the Northern Circuit. He wrote on the Stock Exchange and served as Junior Counsel to the Treasury from 1912 to 1921. In 1916 he helped prosecute Sir Roger Casement for treason, and in 1918 he became a Master of the Bench of the Inner Temple. He was knighted in 1921 and appointed a Justice of the High Court, King's Bench Division, serving until 1939. A notable case was Warner Bros. Pictures Inc v. Nelson (1937).
In 1940 he was sworn into the Privy Council. He died on 23 April 1951, aged 79, with Bullswater House, Pirbright, Surrey listed as his address.
Branson married Mona Joyce Bailey in 1915. They had a son, Edward James "Ted" Branson (1918–2011), and a daughter. Edward later became the father of Richard Branson in 1950.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 15:00 (CET).