Sir Stephen Brown (3 October 1924 – 1 October 2025) was a British judge. He was a Lord Justice of Appeal and the President of the Family Division of the High Court of England and Wales.
Brown was born on 3 October 1924 to Wilfrid Brown and Nora Elizabeth Brown of Longdon Green, Staffordshire. He was educated at Malvern College[1][failed verification][2] and Queens' College, Cambridge.[3]
From 1943 to 1946 Brown served in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve as a lieutenant.
Brown became a barrister at the Inner Temple in 1949, became a bencher[4] in 1974,[citation needed] and became Treasurer[4] in 1994[citation needed]. He was Deputy Chairman of Staffordshire Quarter Sessions[4] from 1963 to 1971, and Recorder[4] of West Bromwich from 1965 to 1971. He was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1966. He was a Recorder, and Honorary Recorder of West Bromwich from 1972 to 1975, was a High Court judge, in the Family Division,[4] from 1975 to 1977, and in the Queen's Bench Division from 1977 to 1983, and was Presiding Judge of the Midland and Oxford Circuit[4] from 1977 to 1981.
Brown became a Privy Counsellor in 1983[5] and was appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal (1983–88)[6] and, finally, President of the Family Division (1988–99) of the High Court of England and Wales. On 19 November 1992, he delivered the landmark ruling that doctors treating Tony Bland, who had been in a persistent vegetative state since suffering serious brain damage in the Hillsborough disaster more than three years earlier, could withdraw food and treatment keeping him alive. Treatment was ultimately withdrawn on 22 February 1993, after the House of Lords rejected an appeal by the Official Solicitor, and Mr Bland died on 3 March 1993.[7]
He was a member of the Parole Board of England and Wales from 1967 to 1971, of the Butler Committee on mentally abnormal offenders[4] from 1972 to 1975, and of the Advisory Council on Penal System in 1977. He was chairman of the Advisory Committee on Conscientious Objectors[6] from 1971 to 1975. He was chairman of the Council of Malvern College from 1976 to 1994.[4]
As of 10 January 2009, he was also a member of the Advisory Committee of Children's Rights International.[2]
In 1951, Brown married Patricia Ann Good, daughter of Richard Good from Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire. They had twin sons and three daughters. They lived in Harborne, Birmingham until Patricia died in January 2020.[8] Brown died on 1 October 2025, at the age of 100.[9]
Brown was knighted in 1975. Brown was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) in the 1999 Birthday Honours "for services to the Family Court System."[10]
He received an honorary fellowship and several honorary degrees:
