Cyril John Radcliffe, 1st Viscount Radcliffe, (30 March 1899 – 1 April 1977), was a British lawyer and Law Lord best known for his role in the Partition of India. He served as the first chancellor of the University of Warwick from its 1965 foundation until 1977.
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Education and early career
Radcliffe was born in Llanychan, Denbighshire, Wales, third of the four children — all sons — of Captain Alfred Ernest Radcliffe, of the King's Own Royal Regiment, and Sybil Harriet, daughter of solicitor Robert Cunliffe, President of the Law Society of England and Wales between 1890 and 1891.
Radcliffe was educated at Haileybury College. He was conscripted in World War I, allocated to the Labour Corps because of his poor eyesight. After the war, he attended New College, Oxford, and took a first in literae humaniores in 1921. In 1922, he was elected to a prize fellowship at All Souls College, Oxford. He won the Eldon Law Scholarship in 1923.
He was called to the bar by the Inner Temple in 1924, joining the chambers of Wilfred Greene, later the Master of the Rolls. He practised at the Chancery bar, and was appointed a King's Counsel in 1935.