The youngest child of British prime minister H. H. Asquith by his first wife, Cyril Asquith followed the steps of his father and eldest brother into a distinguished academic career at Balliol College, Oxford, before serving in the British Army during the First World War.

Asquith was widely regarded as possessing one of the finest minds on the bench, although his rapid rise, after an unremarkable career at the bar, was the cause for some adverse comment.

[1] Following in the steps of his father and his brother Raymond, Cyril Asquith obtained first-class honours in Classical Moderations in 1911 and in literae humaniores in 1913.

From 1916 to 1918 Asquith, who was deemed medically unfit for military service abroad, was employed by the Ministry of Munitions, serving for a time on the British War Mission in the United States.

[1] Hewart assigned Asquith a number of high-profile criminal trials at the Old Bailey, where mistakes would adversely affect his reputation.

However, as a judge, Asquith was especially successful in the trial of criminal cases, where his ability to explain the law to the jury was valuable, though he was occasionally criticised as being too lenient in his sentences.

[1][4] During the Second World War, Asquith provided advice to King George VI on his power to refuse a dissolution in 1939.

Although his family pleaded with him to accept the post, he declined it; to his son-in-law John Stephenson he wrote that Churchill "mustn't be saddled with a lame duck on the Woolsack".

[1] Lord Chancellor Simon reportedly thought that Asquith "possessed the most distinguished mind of any judge on the Bench".

[15] In 1946, recommending Asquith's promotion to the Court of Appeal, Simon's successor Lord Jowitt wrote to Clement Attlee that:If he were to be appointed a member of the Court of Appeal, he would be one of a team, and under the tutelage of the Master of the Rolls he might be made to do some work … I recognise that his promotion would be regarded by the Bench and Bar as a reward for singularly unmeritorious services.

Famously, in Candler v. Crane, Christmas & Co. (1951), in response to Lord Denning's critique in his dissent that "there were the timorous souls who were fearful of allowing a new cause of action", Asquith replied that "If this relegates me to the company of timorous souls, I must face that consequence with such fortitude as I can command".

[1] His younger daughter, the Hon (Frances) Rose Asquith (1925–2020), married in 1951 John Stephenson, later a Lord Justice of Appeal.