Sir Leonard Wilfred James Costello (25 August 1881 – 2 December 1972)[1] was an English barrister, college lecturer, soldier and colonial judge who was also a Liberal Party politician.

[7] It was widely believed that the jury in the case had made up their mind to find the defendant not guilty despite what Costello regarded as conclusive evidence of guilt.

In a case with echoes of the famous Tichborne Claimant, the court action was concerned with the dispute of inheritance of an estate and the identity of the Second Kumar of Bhawal (a Bengali princeling or zamindar) who was declared dead under mysterious circumstances, and who came back to life after twelve years.

He served as Legal Adviser to the Devon County Army Welfare Services, 1941–46 (for which work he was awarded the Defence Medal).

[14] Costello was a founder member of the first Executive Committee of the National League of Young Liberals and he was later the Chairman of the NLYL London Council.

[16] He first stood for Parliament at the January 1910 general election, contesting the Strand Division of Westminster,[17] a safe Unionist seat.

But at the 1923 general election he switched seats to contest Huntingdonshire, beating the sitting Tory MP, Charles Murchison, by a majority of 1,061 votes.

[21] With the Tories making a renewed effort Costello held the seat for just a year as Murchison won it back at the 1924 general election.

[22] Costello's year in the House of Commons seems to have enough for him as he did not to fight any further Parliamentary campaigns, although he was reported as being one of the Liberal candidates considered for the by-election at Berwick-upon-Tweed[23] in 1941 fought under the wartime truce.

[26] He was also Chairman of the Lumley Memorial Trust from 1950 onwards and President of his local Committee of the Cancer Research Campaign, since its inception.

In work connected to his legal background he was a member of the Board of Visitors of HM Prison, Dartmoor, 1950–61 and Chairman of the County Confirming and Compensation Committees, 1951–56.