Gavin Simonds, 1st Viscount Simonds

Gavin Turnbull Simonds, 1st Viscount Simonds, PC (28 November 1881 – 28 June 1971) was a British judge and Lord Chancellor.

Simonds was born in Reading in the English county of Berkshire, the son of Louis DeLuze Simonds and his wife, Mary Elizabeth Turnbull. They were members of the well-known Berkshire family of brewing magnates. He was educated at Winchester College (where he was later a Fellow, and Warden from 1946 – 1951) and at New College, Oxford.

Simonds was called to the Bar in 1906 and appointed a King's Counsel in 1924. He was appointed a Bencher of Lincoln's Inn in 1929 and was Treasurer from 1951. He was appointed a Judge of the Chancery Division of the High Court of Justice in 1937 (until 1944), and was appointed a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary in 1944, serving until 1951. He was appointed Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain in 1951, serving until 1954, when he again served as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary until 1962. He was High Steward of Oxford University from 1954 – 1967 and was High Steward of the City of Winchester from 1951.

Simonds was knighted in 1937, appointed a Privy Counsellor and created a Law Life Peer as Baron Simonds, of Sparsholt in the County of Hampshire in 1944, created (hereditary) Baron Simonds in 1952 and Viscount Simonds in 1954. One of his twin sons was killed in action in 1944, and the other died in 1951. The Viscountcy therefore became extinct upon his death.