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The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, an individual must belong to one of these Inns. It is located in the wider Temple area of the capital, near the Royal Courts of Justice, and within the City of London.
The Inn is a professional body that provides legal training, selection, and regulation for members. It is ruled by a governing council called "Parliament", made up of the Masters of the Bench (or "Benchers"), and led by the Treasurer, who is elected to serve a one-year term. The Temple takes its name from the Knights Templar, who originally leased the land to the Temple's inhabitants (Templars) until their abolition in 1312. The Inner Temple was a distinct society from at least 1388, although as with all the Inns of Court its precise date of founding is not known. After a disruptive early period (during which the Temple was almost entirely destroyed in the Peasants' Revolt) it flourished, becoming the second largest Inn during the Elizabethan period (after Gray's Inn).
Significant members of the judiciary include Sir Edward Coke, Lady Justice Butler-Sloss, and Lord Justice Birkett. Several barrister members have gone on to be highly important, including Edward Marshall-Hall, and legal academics have also been members, such as Sir John Baker.
Prime Ministers Clement Attlee and George Grenville have both been members; as was the first Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman; the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru; the founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah; the fifth President of India, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed; Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, father of India and leader of the Indian independence movement, was called to the bar at Inner temple in 1891, before returning to India; Siddhartha Shankar Ray, Indian politician, statesman, noted lawyer, Chief Minister of Bengal, Governor of Punjab and Indian Ambassador to United States of America.
Outside of the law and politics, members have included the poet Arthur Brooke, Admiral Francis Drake, dramatist W. S. Gilbert, the economist John Maynard Keynes and diplomat and Righteous among the Nations Prince Constantin Karadja.