Sir Gervais Squire Chittick Rentoul KC (1 August 1884 – 7 March 1946) was a British Conservative politician.
James Rentoul was something of an eccentric and one contemporary newspaper reported of him that "no man, woman or child wished to see him return to East Down.
"[citation needed] He was born in Plumstead[1] and educated at the City of London School, the Royal University of Ireland and Christ Church, Oxford, where he obtained first class honours in Jurisprudence and was President of the Oxford Union Society.
Among the stage roles he played was Angelo[3] in Measure for Measure (1906)[1] and Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew (1907), a production including the professional actresses Lily Brayton as Katherine (and her real-life sister Agnes as her character's sister, Bianca).
[7] He was portrayed on television by Robin Sachs in the play The Root of all Evil (1981),[8] a dramatisation of the Seddon murder case in 1912 in which Rentoul had appeared for the defence.