Alexander Coutanche, Baron Coutanche

The Right Honourable The Lord Coutanche
A bust of Lord Coutanche is sited on the side of the States Building in Saint Helier below the balcony from which he announced the Liberation of Jersey on 8 May 1945
Bailiff of Jersey
In office 1935–1962
Preceded by	Charles de Carteret
Succeeded by	Cecil Stanley Harrison
Personal details
Born	Alexander Moncrieff Coutanche (1892-05-09)9 May 1892 Saint Saviour, Jersey
Died	18 December 1973(1973-12-18) (aged 81) Saint Brélade, Jersey
Resting place	Saint Brélade, Jersey

Alexander Moncrieff Coutanche, Baron Coutanche (9 May 1892 – 18 December 1973) was a former Bailiff of Jersey and member of the House of Lords in the United Kingdom.

Coutanche was born in Saint Saviour, Jersey; the younger son and third child to Adolphus Arnold Coutanche (1856–1921) and Jane Alexandrina Finlayson (d. 1909). He was educated at Jersey High School and Victoria College before going to study law at the University of Caen. He then attended Carlisle and Gregson's London Academy with the intention of entering the Indian Civil Service. However, although he passed the entrance examination for the Indian Civil Service, he was rejected on health grounds due to the discovery of a systolic heart murmur.

Having studied law before attempting to enter the civil service, Coutanche entered the chambers of John Beaumont at the Middle Temple in 1912. He aimed to practise at the Chancery bar, but was instead called to the Jersey bar in 1913. Upon the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Coutanche served as an assistant to a government secretary in Jersey. He was ineligible to join the Inns of Court regiment due to his previously discovered heart murmur. Therefore, he went to work at a munitions factory, rising from a worker through to management level. He was called to the English bar in 1915.

In 1917, he volunteered for work with the War Claims Commission and was posted to Belgium with the rank of Lieutenant. During his time in Belgium, he won the Belgian Croix de Guerre and was appointed chevalier of the Order of the Crown (Belgium). He left the army in 1920 with the rank of Captain. He returned to his chambers in London, but then had to return to work at the Jersey chambers due to the illness of his father.

He was elected a Deputy of Saint Helier in 1922, and married Ruth Sophia Joan Gore in 1924.

In 1925, Coutanche was appointed Solicitor-General, and went on to reform the department of the law officers and reorganised the States Greffe of the States of Jersey. He was promoted to Attorney-General in 1931. In 1935, the bailiff of Jersey, Charles de Carteret, retired. Coutanche was promoted to this office. As the last bailiff appointed before the passage of a law on the Bailiff in 1936, he was the last bailiff appointed for life and the last under the sole prerogative of the Crown without the obligation to consult the States of Jersey.