Lord Goddard announced his resignation as Lord Chief Justice in 1958. He had been an exception to the tradition that the Attorney General be appointed to the role and some commentators expected that the next appointment would therefore be Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller, Attorney-General at the time. However Manningham-Buller was widely disliked and also shared Goddard's reactionary views on criminal justice. Harold Macmillan considered Viscount Kilmuir, the Lord Chancellor, but Kilmuir rejected the job. Macmillan therefore decided to appoint a senior Judge, and Parker's name emerged as the one candidate with whom most people were happy. On 30 September 1958, Parker took the title Baron Parker of Waddington, of Lincoln’s Inn in the Borough of Holborn.