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Tom Bingham, Baron Bingham of Cornhill
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Tom Bingham, Baron Bingham of Cornhill
Thomas Henry Bingham, Baron Bingham of Cornhill (13 October 1933 – 11 September 2010) was a British judge who was successively Master of the Rolls, Lord Chief Justice and Senior Law Lord. On his death in 2010, he was described as the greatest judge of his generation. Baroness Hale of Richmond observed that his pioneering role in the formation of the United Kingdom Supreme Court may be his most important and long-lasting legacy. The Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers regarded Bingham as "one of the two great legal figures of my lifetime in the law" (the other figure, in context, being Lord Denning). Lord Hope of Craighead described Bingham as "the greatest jurist of our time".
After retiring from the judiciary in 2008, Bingham focused on teaching, writing, and lecturing on legal subjects, particularly the law of human rights. His book, The Rule of Law, was published in 2010 and he was posthumously awarded the 2011 Orwell Prize for literature. The British Institute of International and Comparative Law named the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law in his honour.
Bingham was born at Marylebone in London. His parents, Thomas Henry (1901–1981) and Catherine Bingham (née Watterson; 1903–1989), practised as doctors in Reigate, Surrey. His father was born in Belfast, a kinsman of the Earls of Lucan;[citation needed] his mother was from California before being raised on the Isle of Man.
He was educated at The Hawthorns prep school at Bletchingley, Surrey, where he was Head Boy, and then from 1947 the Cumbrian public school Sedbergh School (Winder House), where he was described as the "brightest boy in 100 years". He enjoyed history, took up fell-walking, and developed a strong attachment to the Church of England; he was a Head of House and a School Prefect. He won an open scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford, first undertaking National Service from 1952 to 1954, as a second lieutenant in the Royal Ulster Rifles serving in Hong Kong. He enjoyed his time in the Army and considered pursuing a military career before opting to serve in the Territorial Army for the next five years.
He went up to Oxford in 1954 and initially read Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, but after two terms switched to History. He was awarded one of the first William Coolidge Pathfinder Awards and spent the summer of 1955 in the US. He entered Gray's Inn during his second year at Oxford, with a view to becoming a barrister. He was elected President of Balliol Junior Common Room in his third year. He won the Gibbs Prize for Modern History in 1957 and was awarded first-class honours in finals. He also tried, unsuccessfully, for fellowship by examination at All Souls College. After graduation, he read for the Bar as Eldon Law Scholar and achieved a Certificate of Honour, coming top of Bar finals in 1959.
In 1963, he married Elizabeth Loxley, a Somerville graduate whose great-uncle was Major Gerald Loxley, of the Loxley family of Northcott Court, Hertfordshire; they had one daughter Catherine Elizabeth (born 1965), known as Kate, and two sons Thomas Henry (Harry, born 1967) and Christopher Toby (Kit, born 1969). Kate has been married since 1992 to Jesse Norman, then a Conservative government minister.
In 1965, Bingham and his wife Elizabeth acquired a cottage at Cornhill, near Boughrood in Powys; he died there in 2010.
Bingham was called to the Bar by Gray's Inn, and was a pupil barrister under Judge Owen Stable QC in the chambers of Leslie Scarman at 2 Crown Office Row, which later moved to Fountain Court Chambers: within a few months, he was invited to become a tenant at the chambers. He took silk in 1972, becoming Queen's Counsel aged just 38 and the youngest that year, having served as Standing Counsel at the Department of Employment for four years from 1968. He was Counsel to the judicial inquiry into an explosion at a chemical plant at Flixborough in 1974 which killed 28 people. In 1977, when still at the Bar, he rose to public attention when he was appointed by the then-Foreign Secretary Dr. David Owen to head a public enquiry into alleged breaches of UN sanctions by oil companies in Rhodesia.
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Tom Bingham, Baron Bingham of Cornhill
Thomas Henry Bingham, Baron Bingham of Cornhill (13 October 1933 – 11 September 2010) was a British judge who was successively Master of the Rolls, Lord Chief Justice and Senior Law Lord. On his death in 2010, he was described as the greatest judge of his generation. Baroness Hale of Richmond observed that his pioneering role in the formation of the United Kingdom Supreme Court may be his most important and long-lasting legacy. The Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers regarded Bingham as "one of the two great legal figures of my lifetime in the law" (the other figure, in context, being Lord Denning). Lord Hope of Craighead described Bingham as "the greatest jurist of our time".
After retiring from the judiciary in 2008, Bingham focused on teaching, writing, and lecturing on legal subjects, particularly the law of human rights. His book, The Rule of Law, was published in 2010 and he was posthumously awarded the 2011 Orwell Prize for literature. The British Institute of International and Comparative Law named the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law in his honour.
Bingham was born at Marylebone in London. His parents, Thomas Henry (1901–1981) and Catherine Bingham (née Watterson; 1903–1989), practised as doctors in Reigate, Surrey. His father was born in Belfast, a kinsman of the Earls of Lucan;[citation needed] his mother was from California before being raised on the Isle of Man.
He was educated at The Hawthorns prep school at Bletchingley, Surrey, where he was Head Boy, and then from 1947 the Cumbrian public school Sedbergh School (Winder House), where he was described as the "brightest boy in 100 years". He enjoyed history, took up fell-walking, and developed a strong attachment to the Church of England; he was a Head of House and a School Prefect. He won an open scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford, first undertaking National Service from 1952 to 1954, as a second lieutenant in the Royal Ulster Rifles serving in Hong Kong. He enjoyed his time in the Army and considered pursuing a military career before opting to serve in the Territorial Army for the next five years.
He went up to Oxford in 1954 and initially read Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, but after two terms switched to History. He was awarded one of the first William Coolidge Pathfinder Awards and spent the summer of 1955 in the US. He entered Gray's Inn during his second year at Oxford, with a view to becoming a barrister. He was elected President of Balliol Junior Common Room in his third year. He won the Gibbs Prize for Modern History in 1957 and was awarded first-class honours in finals. He also tried, unsuccessfully, for fellowship by examination at All Souls College. After graduation, he read for the Bar as Eldon Law Scholar and achieved a Certificate of Honour, coming top of Bar finals in 1959.
In 1963, he married Elizabeth Loxley, a Somerville graduate whose great-uncle was Major Gerald Loxley, of the Loxley family of Northcott Court, Hertfordshire; they had one daughter Catherine Elizabeth (born 1965), known as Kate, and two sons Thomas Henry (Harry, born 1967) and Christopher Toby (Kit, born 1969). Kate has been married since 1992 to Jesse Norman, then a Conservative government minister.
In 1965, Bingham and his wife Elizabeth acquired a cottage at Cornhill, near Boughrood in Powys; he died there in 2010.
Bingham was called to the Bar by Gray's Inn, and was a pupil barrister under Judge Owen Stable QC in the chambers of Leslie Scarman at 2 Crown Office Row, which later moved to Fountain Court Chambers: within a few months, he was invited to become a tenant at the chambers. He took silk in 1972, becoming Queen's Counsel aged just 38 and the youngest that year, having served as Standing Counsel at the Department of Employment for four years from 1968. He was Counsel to the judicial inquiry into an explosion at a chemical plant at Flixborough in 1974 which killed 28 people. In 1977, when still at the Bar, he rose to public attention when he was appointed by the then-Foreign Secretary Dr. David Owen to head a public enquiry into alleged breaches of UN sanctions by oil companies in Rhodesia.
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