John Howard Shakespeare, secretary of the Baptist Union of Great Britain,[1] he was educated at Highgate School.

He studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he graduated with an MA and an LLB degree.

He was called to the Bar in 1922, was Private Secretary to David Lloyd George in 1921–1923, and worked as a political journalist.

As Private Secretary, he attended the peace negotiations leading to the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, of which he gave a valuable account in his memoirs, Let Candles be Brought In.

Particularly useful is his description of the final hours of the talks on 5–6 December 1921 when Lloyd George presented the Irish delegation with the famous ultimatum that they must sign the Treaty at once or face "terrible and immediate war".