Quintin Hogg was born in London, 9 October 1907, the son of Douglas McGarel Hogg, 1st Viscount Hailsham, and Elizabeth Marjoribanks (née Brown). He was educated at Eton, 1920-6, and Christ Church, Oxford, 1926-30. He was President of the Oxford Union, 1929. He married Natalie Sullivan in 1932 (divorced 1943); Mary Evelyn Martin in 1944 (died 1978), with whom he had two sons and three daughters; and Deirdre Shannon in 1986 (died 1998).

He was a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, 1931-8, and was called to the Bar by Lincoln's Inn, 1932. He was elected Conservative Member of Parliament for Oxford City, 1938-50. He joined the Rifle Brigade, 1939, and served in the Western Desert, where he was wounded, 1941, and in Egypt, Lebanon and Syria, 1941-2. He returned to politics, 1943, and became Under-Secretary for Air, 1945.

He succeeded to his father's peerage, as 2nd Viscount Hailsham, 1950. He became a Queen's Council, 1953, and a bencher of Lincoln's Inn, 1956. He was First Lord of the Admiralty, 1956-7; Minister of Education, 1957; Lord President of the Council, 1957-9 and 1960-4; Chairman of the Conservative Party, 1957-9; Deputy Leader of the House of Lords, 1957-60; Lord Privy Seal, 1959-60; Minister for Science and Technology, 1959-64; Leader of the House of Lords, 1960-3; Minister with special responsibility for Sport, 1962-4; Minister with special responsibility for unemployment in the North-East, 1963-4; and Minister with special responsibility for Higher Education, 1963-4. He represented the government at negotiations of a nuclear test ban treaty in Moscow, 1963.

He disclaimed his peerage for life, 1963, and was elected Conservative Member of Parliament for St Marylebone, 1963-70. He made an unsuccessful bid for the premiership after Harold Macmillan announced his retirement due to ill health, 1963. He was Secretary of State for Education and Science, April-October 1964. In Opposition, he advised on industrial relations and was spokesman on Home Affairs, 1966-70. He was Lord Chancellor, 1970-4 and 1979-87.

He was created a life peer, as Lord Hailsham of St Marylebone, 1970; a Companion of Honour, 1974; and a Knight of the Garter, 1988. He was a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, 1961-2001; Rector of Glasgow University, 1959-62; and Chancellor of Buckingham University, 1983-92.

He died on 12 October 2001.

His publications include: 'The Law of Arbitration' (1935); 'One Year's Work' (1944); 'The Law and Employers' Liability' (1944); 'The Times We Live In' (1944); 'Making Peace' (1945); 'The Left was Never Right' (1945); 'The Purpose of Parliament' (1946); 'The Case for Conservatism' (1947); 'The Law of Monopolies, Restrictive Practices and Resale Price Maintenance' (1956); 'The Conservative Case' (1959); 'Interdependence' (1961); 'Science and Politics' (1963); 'The Devil's Own Song' (1968); 'The Door Wherein I Went' (1975); 'Elective Dictatorship' (1976); 'The Dilemma of Democracy' (1978); 'Hamlyn Revisited: the British legal system' (1983); 'A Sparrow's Flight' (1990); 'On the Constitution' (1992); and 'Values: collapse and cure' (1994). He was editor of 'Halsbury's Laws of England', 4th edition, from 1972.