Arthur Cohen

Arthur Cohen, (18 November 1829 – 3 November 1914) was an English barrister and Liberal Party politician. Biography He was born in Wyndham Place, Bryanston Square, London, the youngest son of Benjamin Cohen, a prosperous bill broker. His grandfather, Levy Barent Cohen, had moved from Holland. His mother, Justina, was the sister of Sir Moses Montefiore. After three years' study at the gymnasium in Frankfurt-on-the-Main, he entered as a student at University College London. He proceeded to Cambridge University at a time when it was almost impossible for a Jew to gain admission into the colleges. In 1849, he was received into Magdalene College, Cambridge to read Mathematics. In 1853 he was president of the Cambridge Union Society. At Cambridge Cohen had a successful career, coming out fifth wrangler in the Mathematical tripos. As a Jew he could not take his degree until after the passing of the Cambridge Reform Act of 1856, which abolished the obligatory Christian oath which had preceded graduation. In 1858 Cohen became the first professing Jew to graduate at Cambridge, taking his MA in 1860. Cohen then read law and was called to the bar in 1857. He established for himself a reputation in shipping and insurance cases. Among several important appointments was his selection to represent the interests of England in the famous arbitration case (Alabama Claims) connected with the CSS Alabama at Geneva in 1872. He was for many years after 1876 standing counsel for his university. He often represented foreign governments in disputes before the English law courts, as, for example, the Japanese government in an important case against the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company.