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C Celebrate the Lives
CELEBRATE THE LIVES
SIR RICHARD CURTIS QC 24 May 1933 – 15 October 2021
After reading Law at Exeter College, Oxford, Master Richard Curtis was called to the Bar in 1958 and practised on the (then) Midland and Oxford Circuit mainly from 3 Fountain Court Chambers in Birmingham. In 1974, he was appointed a Recorder and in 1981, Honorary Recorder of Hereford. Master Curtis was elected a Governing Bencher of the Inn in 1985. After taking silk in 1977 he practised from 1 King’s Bench Walk before being appointed Recorder of Birmingham (as a Senior Circuit Judge) in 1989.
In 1992, he was appointed a Justice of the High Court, Queen’s Bench Division, serving until 2005. He was a Presiding Judge on the Wales and Chester Circuit from 1994–97. Widely regarded as a safe pair of hands he presided over some of the more sensitive cases that had attracted national attention such as the Baroness de Stempel trial in 1990; the private prosecution brought by the family of Stephen Lawrence in1994 and the Roy Whiting trial in 2001 for the murder of 8 year old Sarah Payne.
A senior member of the Midland Circuit paid tribute calling him “a giant in the field of law, respected for his intellect, an inspiration to many who followed his achievements and someone we all aspired to emulate”.
After retiring, Master Curtis participated in country life in Devon and enjoyed the occasional foray to the Garrick Club of which he was very fond. He was very proud of the vineyard he had established in Herefordshire in the 1980s and maintained a superb cellar throughout his life.
He leaves four sons Rupert, a solicitor, Alexander, a diplomat, Jonathan and Benedict who both make their livings in Scotland.
SIR EDWARD EVANS-LOMBE 10 April 1937 – 120 May 2022
Master Evans-Lombe was Called to the Bar by The Inner Temple in 1963 and took silk 1978. He was appointed as a High Court judge in 1993 and as a member of the Competition Appeal Tribunal in 2004. He retired as a judge in 2008.
Master Evans-Lombe was elected a Governing Bencher of the Inn in 1985.
THE RT HON THE LORD SAINSBURY OF PRESTON CANDOVER KG 2 November 1927 – 14 January 2022
Master Sainsbury had a lifelong career at the family supermarket chain Sainsbury’s. In 1969, he took over from his uncle Sir Robert Sainsbury as Chairman and Chief Executive, a position he held until his retirement in 1992. He was knighted in 1980 for services to the food retailing industry, was made a life peer in 1989 and became a Knight of the Garter in 1992. A great supporter of the arts, he was a governor of the Royal Ballet School, Chair of the Royal Opera House and a trustee of the National Gallery, providing funds, with his two brothers, to construct the Sainsbury Wing of the museum. He also made significant gifts to the British Museum and Dulwich Picture Gallery amongst others. With his wife, Anya Linden, Ballerina with the Royal Ballet Company, he ran the Linbury Trust supporting causes across a wide spectrum from arts, heritage and culture, to education access for young people and overseas humanitarian aid.
Master Sainsbury was elected an Honorary Bencher of The Inner Temple in 1985.
JOHN DEBY QC 19 December 1931 – 30 July 2022
Born and schooled in Sheffield, Master Deby won a scholarship to Winchester and later to Trinity College Cambridge. He was a brilliant classicist and winner of the King’s Prize for Read Latin in 1949. He was called to the Bar by the Inn in 1954. In 1959, he stood for parliament for a Sheffield constituency. He took silk in 1970 and was appointed a Recorder of the Crown Court from 1977 until 1995.
John had a great love and knowledge of both the ballet and opera and was a keen supporter of the Royal Opera House. He adopted Dubrovnic as a place of holiday refuge, supporting the rebuilding after the war with Serbia. About 2000, he and his life-long partner Geoffrey Faux (who died in2012) were made Honorary Freemen of the City, two of only a handful of foreigners ever to be so honoured.
Master Deby was elected a Bencher of the Inn in 1986 and served as Master of the Silver from 1991 to 2012. During his tenure as Master of the Silver he was responsible for commissioning the Pegasus candlesticks crafted by silversmith Anthony Elson; one pair for the Millennium, another pair for the Queen’s Golden Jubilee and four smaller candelabra for the Quatercentenary of the Royal Charter. He read Latin and Greek until his death.
Nigel John Mawdesley Hamilton QC, husband of the late Leone Morag Elizabeth Hamilton died on the 20 September 2021 in his 83rd year – a funeral was held on 14 October 2021. Lord Hunt of the Wirral delivered the eulogy.
Nigel (born in Ndola, Northern Rhodesia), attended St Edwards School, Oxford, before reading Classics at Queen’s College Cambridge. He was called to the Bar in 1965 and was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1981. Nigel married Leone in 1963, and they are succeeded by two sons Andrew and William. Nigel moved from Kent to set up a family home near Bristol in 1969 from where he did much of his work practisng on the Western Circuit and the Isle of Man. He set up St John’s Chambers in Bristol with Bill Huntley in 1982, and he was a door tenant at New Bailey Chambers in Liverpool. He was a Conservative member of Avon County Council from 1989 to 1993 and a member of the General Council of the Bar from 1989–1994. Master Hamilton was elected a Governing Bencher of the Inn in 1989.
Nigel was a keen fisherman, shooter and loved the outdoors. He moved to the Chew Valley so he could always have a close eye on Blagdon and Chew Valley lakes – both famous Trout fishing lakes.
Whilst he suffered a journey of cancer for a number of years in his later life, he managed to read a huge quantity of books in this time. He lived in his family home until his final days before passing away peacefully in his sleep.
JUDGE MARTIN L C FELDMAN 28 January 1934 – 26 January 2022
“For me, the law became a world of consequence, enlightenment, and joy,” declared Master Feldman in a speech he delivered in 1994. His “world of consequence” comprised a catalogue of achievements and glittering prizes. He was a US Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps reserve captain from 1957 to 1963. In 1983, he was nominated by President Reagan to be a Federal District Judge in New Orleans, and he was confirmed and commissioned the same year. He rendered nearly 40 years of distinguished and honorable service in that office. He was a board member of the Federal Judicial Center from 1991–1995. He was elected Chairman of the American Bar Association’s National Conference of Federal Trial Judges in 1996. He was Chairman of the Board of Advisory Editors of the Tulane Law Review from 2000–2014. Chief Justice John Roberts appointed him to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, where he served from 2010–2017. When he died, his was the second longest tenure of any active Federal District Court Judge in the country.
Master Feldman was elected an Honorary Bencher of the Inn in 1990, a gratifying legal milestone for so ardent an Anglophile. His friendships were a large part of the “enlightenment and joy” he found in his life in the law, notably, to name but one, his long friendship with Sir Ian Percival, Solicitor General from 1979–1983, and Lady Percival. Master Feldman was the United States district judge member of the Quadrennial Anglo-American Legal Exchange for 2004–2005. He celebrated his 70th birthday in 2004 with a dinner at the Inn.
He also enjoyed a long and remarkable friendship with Justice Antonin Scalia of the United States Supreme Court. He contributed a touching essay to a small volume called Antonin Scalia on Faith, which appeared after Justice Scalia’s death. Master Feldman left a cohort of talented, accomplished and devoted former law clerks, keenly appreciative of his guidance and mentorship. His beloved wife, Melanie Pulitzer Feldman, predeceased him in 2002. He is survived by his daughter, Jennifer Feldman Lund, of New York, and his son, Martin Feldman, Jr, of Jerusalem, Israel.
MURRAY PICKERING QC 11 June 1934 – 11 May 2022
Master Pickering was Called to the Bar by The Inner Temple in 1963. He started his practice from 3 Essex Court and then Chambers moved on to 20 Essex Street, where he practised principally in commercial law, banking, financial transactions and international commercial arbitration. He took silk in 1985 and was appointed as a Recorder in 1992. Master Pickering was an elected member of the Bar Council from 1987 to 1992 and was a Vice-Chairman of the Professional Conduct Committee in 1991 and 1992.
Master Pickering was elected a Governing Bencher of the Inn in 1992. He was a frequent attender at the Inn’s social and collegiate events, including lectures and Call Night ceremonies.
Giles Wingate-Saul was called to the Bar in 1967 and was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1983. Prior to his retirement, he had a Manchester and London based civil and commercial practice. His areas of practice included catastrophic personal injury (brain damage and spinal injury). He was a mercantile/commercial and construction mediator (trained by CEDR). He became a Deputy High Court Judge and Deputy Judge of the Technology and Construction Court. In 1996, he founded The Northern Circuit Commercial Bar Association, remaining as Chairman until 2002. He was also a member of the Personal Injury Bar Association, the Professional Negligence Bar Association, Technology and Construction Bar Association, the Society of Construction Law, Bar European Group and the European Circuit.
Master Wingate-Saul was elected as a Governing Bencher of the Inn in 1993. He was much involved in the Inn’s life on Circuit, particularly the Highgate House Weekends. He retired in 2005.
Master Kadri (Sibghatullah Kadri QC) was called to the Bar in 1969. He went on to become a leading civil rights lawyer and an authority on immigration laws, Sharia law and race relations in Britain. He was appointed the UK’s first-ever Muslim Queen’s Counsel in 1989.
In 1970, he jointly founded the Society of Afro-Asian and Caribbean Lawyers, now known as the Society of Black Lawyers, and became its first Chairman. Three years later, having found it impossible to obtain a tenancy, he established his own set of chambers with the deliberate aim of combating racial prejudice within and beyond the Bar. His efforts were instrumental in persuading the Bar Council in 1982 to acknowledge that the legal profession needed to address the problem of racism by establishing a Working Party on Race Relations. This soon led to the formation of a permanent Race Relations Committee, on which Master Kadri served intermittently throughout the 1980s. For many years thereafter, he remained at the forefront of the struggle against racial discrimination in legal education and at the Bar.
Master Kadri was elected a Governing Bencher of the Inn in 1997. Last year he was Chair and plenary speaker of The Inner Temple’s first round table series Race and the Legal Profession.
Master McParland was called to the Bar in 1983 and began his career in George Carman’s set, New Court Chambers. He took silk in 2017 and joined 39 Essex Street in 2018, after practising for nearly 19 years at Quadrant Chambers. Master McParland had 35 years’ experience of trial and appellate advocacy in domestic and international civil and commercial litigation, arbitration and cross-border insolvency proceedings. He was recognised as a leading expert in cross-border disputes and acted for a wide range of UK and international clients. He was licensed to practise as an Attorney-at-Law by the State Bar of
HIS HONOUR ALISTAIR McCREATH 6 June 1948 – 30 January 2022
Master McCreath was Called to the Bar in 1972. From 1973 for 23 years, he had an initially mixed, but latterly criminal law practice at what was then No 6 Fountain Court in Birmingham, before it became Cornwall Street. His judicial career began in 1986 when he was appointed an Assistant Recorder, subsequently becoming a Recorder in 1990. He was appointed a Circuit Judge in 1996 and sat full time as a judge until his retirement in 2017. Between 1996 and 2006, he sat at Birmingham Crown Court, trying a wide variety of cases, including serious sexual offences, major fraud and, latterly, murder. In 2006, Master McCreath was invited to move to Worcester Combined Court Centre as the Resident Judge. He became the Honorary Recorder of Worcester in 2007. He was appointed a judicial member of the Sentencing Council and trained for the Judicial College, where he was, among many roles, responsible for the development of courses, and the judge in immediate charge of continuing training for the criminal judiciary. In 2011, he was promoted to Senior Circuit Judge and took up his post as Resident Judge at Southwark Crown Court in September of that year, where he presided over many high profile trials. He became Honorary Recorder of Westminster in 2012. In that year, he was also authorised to sit as a Circuit Judge in the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division). In 2018, he was appointed as a judicial member of the Parole Board.
Master McCreath was elected a Bencher of The Inner Temple in 2008. He sat on various committees over the years, including the Education & Training, Library, and International Committees. He made a tremendous contribution to the Inn as an Advocacy Trainer, and frequently gave his time and considerable expertise to support the Inn’s training of students, pupils, and new advocacy trainers. He regularly proposed students for Call to the Bar and attended events to enhance the Inn’s connections with universities and legal academics.
California and as a barrister in the British Virgin Islands. Master McParland was the author of The Rome I Regulation on the Law Applicable to Contractual Obligations (Oxford University Press, 2015), a leading conflict of laws textbook that has been cited as authoritative by judges in the Commercial Court and by the Advocate-General in the European Court of Justice. He became well known for his work as a legal commentator for televised US trials for Sky News, The BBC, ITV and other TV and radio stations.
Master McParland was elected a Governing Bencher of the Inn in 2018. He was Master of Debating and Assistant Master of the Drama Society, and a member of the Student Engagement and Support Committee. He gave much assistance to the Inn in these activities and committees and by hosting incoming delegations of international students, lawyers and judges, He also regularly took lunch in Hall.
