Edward Acton secured a minor place in English legal history by becoming the first Judge to be promoted from the County Court to the High Court. He was born in 1865 near Manchester, where his father was a Guardian journalist. Acton studied classics at Wadham College, Oxford, where he arrived a few years before another classicist and future Commercial Judge, Adair Roche. He was called to the Bar by the Inner Temple in 1890, and returned to his home city to start his career. Joining the Northern Circuit, he appeared in the Courts in Manchester, where he also lectured in evidence and procedure at the University, and Liverpool. Acton steadily built up a good common-law practice, and although, as a “local”, he had little profile in the major London cases which attracted the attention of the law reporters, his handful of reported cases included being led by future Commercial Judges Charles Russell (who became Lord Chief Justice, and was a key figure in the creation of the Commercial Court), William Pickford (who became Master of the Rolls), Montague Shearman, and Cyril Atkinson. Acton was widely expected to make the transition to leading counsel himself. But in 1918, instead of becoming a KC, he surprised friends and colleagues by accepting a post as a County Court Judge. He was assigned to hear cases in Nottinghamshire.

Edward Acton in 1930.

Never short of confidence in his own skill and judgement, Lord Chancellor Birkenhead (top) ignored the lamentable example of Edward Ridley when he decided to promote Acton from County Court to High Court.

But it had never been tested in practice. Moreover, the nearest experiment which had been tried had ended unhappily. In 1897, the Conservative Lord Chancellor Halsbury had made Official Referee Edward Ridley QC a King's Bench Judge. Official Referees were junior judicial officers. They were roughly on a par with County Court Judges, although they were attached to the High Court, where they dealt with issues which involved detailed investigation of books and figures, such as complex damages assessments and takings of account. The appointment had provoked a hurricane of protest, not so much because Ridley had been a Conservative MP twenty years before as because his brother was the Home Secretary. Ridley had actually been well-regarded as a Referee. But as a Judge, he was a complete disaster: impatient, tactless, rude, and petty-minded, he constantly quarreled with counsel and witnesses, made his mind up without listening to the argument, and established an unenviable reputation for judicial unfairness. When Ridley retired in 1917, the legal press largely ignored the usual convention of trying to find something pleasant to say about an outgoing Judge. The Law Times condemned his twenty year career on the King’s Bench as "a bitter disappointment", while The Solicitors' Journal implied that it was a pity that Ridley had ever decided to become a lawyer in the first place.

Given this unpromising precedent, Birkenhead's promotion of a County Court Judge was brave and imaginative, and the legal press congratulated his initiative. Making appointments from the County Court was seen as not only broadening the pool of potential candidates for the High Court, but also as enhancing the prestige of the County Court Bench. The office of County Court Judge was generally seen as a distinctly inferior judicial post, a dead-end job for undistinguished practitioners. Sending a message that the post could be a stepping-stone to the High Court was a good way to change this perception, and so to attract more capable recruits.

Commentators also broadly welcomed Birkenhead’s choice of Acton, although there was some surprise that he had not picked a more senior and experienced County Court Judge. There was a widespread suspicion that the fact that Birkenhead, like Acton, was a Wadham graduate with strong links to Liverpool had influenced his decision.

But, though Acton was not an outstanding Judge, he was a dependable one: the Court of Appeal said that he was right in Van Ommeren, and in virtually all of his other judgments which came before them. His most legally significant case concerned tort, not commercial law. In Flint v Lovell [1935] 1 KB 354, Acton awarded a road accident victim compensation for the fact that the crash had reduced his life expectancy. The defendant appealed on the grounds that damages were not recoverable for loss of expectation of life as a matter of law. The Court of Appeal upheld Acton's decision.

Acton's own health deteriorated during 1934, and he resigned that October. He and his wife Edith, whom he had married in 1903, retired to Surrey, their lives uncomplicated by children. In his spare time, Acton enjoyed theatre and music. He also appears to have taken an interest in motoring, and, according to his (extremely brief) 'Telegraph' obituary, was "an early advocate of test for motor vehicle drivers".

Although Acton's King's Bench career had been a distinct success, the experiment of promoting a County Court Judge was not repeated for a quarter of a century. In October 1945, Judge Austin Jones of the Westminster County Court was appointed to the Probate Divorce & Admiralty Division to replace A.T. Denning, who had moved across to the King's Bench. The following month, Edward Acton, who had paved the way for Jones and the many other distinguished County Court Judges who have transferred to the High Court since, died at his home.

Acton’s portrait in Wadham College. The ‘Dictionary of National Biography’ notes that “the artist's attempt to overcome the belittling effect on the face which the wearing of a full-bottomed wig can have has not been entirely successful, and the picture gives the impression that Acton was of larger proportions than was the fact.”