Hubert Parker, Baron Parker of Waddington
Encyclopedia
Hubert Lister Parker, Baron Parker of Waddington
PC
(28 May 1900 – 15 September 1972) was a British
Judge
who served as Lord Chief Justice of England
from 1958 to 1971. His term was marked by much less controversy than under his predecessor, Lord Goddard
.
, who had been a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary
. He went to Rugby School
(which he enjoyed; in later years he was Chairman of the Governors) and Trinity College, Cambridge
. He graduated with a double first in Natural Sciences, specialising in geology
and intending to go into the oil business. This intention he abandoned on graduating in 1922 to read for the Bar
(Lincoln's Inn
) where he was called
in 1924, entering the chambers of Donald Somervell.
in 1948, Parker thought it was too soon and that he had only just become useful to the Treasury Counsel, and therefore declined. He accepted the second invitation when it came in 1950. As he went straight from being Treasury Devil to the High Court, he never 'took silk' (that is to say, he was not a King's Counsel
): the Treasury Devil is never a 'silk'.
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 Waddington in the County of York
.
of 1963. Parker's judgment stated in part "the citizen's highest duty is to the State". Parker also made history when he sentenced George Blake
, convicted of spying, to 42 years imprisonment, the longest sentence then passed in an English court; the conjunction seemed to many to suggest that Parker was too close to the government of the day. Parker had himself said that the Courts "have a positive responsibility to be the handmaiden of administration rather than its governor".
However, Parker was popular among the profession as he secured improvements in judicial salaries and pensions. Parker was a mild reformer who supported legal aid
and tried to modernise some judicial procedures which he thought were antiquated, such as the assize court system. Like Goddard, Parker took an active part in House of Lords
debates. The most important speech he made was in debates during the passage of the War Damage Act 1965 which has the effect of retrospectively overturning the judicial decision of the House of Lords in Burmah Oil Co. v Lord Advocate
thereby depriving the plaintiff of an award of damages. Parker regarded this as an abhorrent idea in principle, but his view did not carry the day. He supported moves to abolish the death penalty
.
In 1964 Parker instituted the first 'Sentencing conference' to try to get consistency. In the late 1960s he introduced the first formal training for Judges, and welcomed the formation of the Law Commission
. When Lord Beeching
headed a committee looking at court reform in 1971, Parker's memorandum was more radical than the committee's recommendations.
farm he ran together with his wife of 48 years.
Waddington, Lancashire
Waddington is a small village, 2 miles north-west of Clitheroe, within the Ribble Valley district of Lancashire, England. It is also a civil parish. Prior to the 1974 county boundary changes, Waddington just fell within the boundary of Bowland Rural District of the West Riding of Yorkshire...
PC
Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign in the United Kingdom...
(28 May 1900 – 15 September 1972) was a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Judge
Judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...
who served as Lord Chief Justice of England
Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales
The Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales is the head of the judiciary and President of the Courts of England and Wales. Historically, he was the second-highest judge of the Courts of England and Wales, after the Lord Chancellor, but that changed as a result of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005,...
from 1958 to 1971. His term was marked by much less controversy than under his predecessor, Lord Goddard
Rayner Goddard, Baron Goddard
Rayner Goddard, Baron Goddard was Lord Chief Justice of England from 1946 to 1958 and known for his strict sentencing and conservative views. He was nicknamed the 'Tiger' and "Justice-in-a-jiffy" for his no-nonsense manner...
.
Family and early life
Parker was the son of Robert Parker, Baron Parker of WaddingtonRobert Parker, Baron Parker of Waddington
Robert John Parker, Baron Parker of Waddington in the County of Yorkshire PC was a British judge and barrister....
, who had been a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary
Judicial functions of the House of Lords
The House of Lords, in addition to having a legislative function, historically also had a judicial function. It functioned as a court of first instance for the trials of peers, for impeachment cases, and as a court of last resort within the United Kingdom. In the latter case the House's...
. He went to Rugby School
Rugby School
Rugby School is a co-educational day and boarding school located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire, England. It is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain.-History:...
(which he enjoyed; in later years he was Chairman of the Governors) and Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
. He graduated with a double first in Natural Sciences, specialising in geology
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
and intending to go into the oil business. This intention he abandoned on graduating in 1922 to read for the Bar
Bar association
A bar association is a professional body of lawyers. Some bar associations are responsible for the regulation of the legal profession in their jurisdiction; others are professional organizations dedicated to serving their members; in many cases, they are both...
(Lincoln's Inn
Lincoln's Inn
The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn. Although Lincoln's Inn is able to trace its official records beyond...
) where he was called
Call to the bar
The Call to the Bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party, and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received a "call to the bar"...
in 1924, entering the chambers of Donald Somervell.
Bar career
At the Bar, Parker specialised in commercial cases and developed a courtroom style that tried to be fair to all the arguments and make a case with calmness. In 1945, he became a Junior Treasury Counsel (commonly referred to as the "Treasury devil"), an appointment which normally led on to promotion to the High Court bench; however, when the invitation camre from Lord JowittWilliam Jowitt, 1st Earl Jowitt
William Allen Jowitt, 1st Earl Jowitt PC, KC , was a British Labour politician and lawyer, who served as Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain under Clement Attlee from 1945 to 1951.-Background and education:...
in 1948, Parker thought it was too soon and that he had only just become useful to the Treasury Counsel, and therefore declined. He accepted the second invitation when it came in 1950. As he went straight from being Treasury Devil to the High Court, he never 'took silk' (that is to say, he was not a King's Counsel
Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel , known as King's Counsel during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law...
): the Treasury Devil is never a 'silk'.
Judicial career
As a Judge, Parker found himself presiding over trials in areas of the law he was unfamiliar with. He claimed that the first summing up which he gave in a criminal trial was the first he had ever heard. However, by getting down to the work, he eventually mastered the job and by 1954 was promoted to the Court of Appeal. The more measured style of the appellate courts suited Parker more than the cut and thrust of the King's Bench, and his ability to get to the important details of a case was assessed as good by those who appeared before him. He proved that he had reasonable political judgment in 1957 when heading a tribunal over a minor political scandal connected with the setting of interest rates.Appointment process
Lord Goddard announced his resignation as Lord Chief Justice in 1958. He had been an exception to the tradition that the Attorney GeneralAttorney General for England and Wales
Her Majesty's Attorney General for England and Wales, usually known simply as the Attorney General, is one of the Law Officers of the Crown. Along with the subordinate Solicitor General for England and Wales, the Attorney General serves as the chief legal adviser of the Crown and its government in...
be appointed to the role and some commentators expected that the next appointment would therefore be Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller
Reginald Manningham-Buller, 1st Viscount Dilhorne
Reginald Edward Manningham-Buller, 1st Viscount Dilhorne PC, QC , known as Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller, Bt, from 1954 to 1962 and as The Lord Dilhorne from 1962 to 1964, was an English lawyer and Conservative politician...
, Attorney-General at the time. However Manningham-Buller was widely disliked and also shared Goddard's reactionary views on criminal justice. Harold Macmillan
Harold Macmillan
Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC was Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 January 1957 to 18 October 1963....
considered Viscount Kilmuir
David Maxwell Fyfe, 1st Earl of Kilmuir
David Patrick Maxwell Fyfe, 1st Earl of Kilmuir GCVO, PC, KC, , known as Sir David Maxwell Fyfe from 1942 to 1954 and as The Viscount Kilmuir from 1954 to 1962, was a British Conservative politician, lawyer and judge who combined an industrious and precocious legal career with political ambitions...
, the Lord Chancellor
Lord Chancellor
The Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, or Lord Chancellor, is a senior and important functionary in the government of the United Kingdom. He is the second highest ranking of the Great Officers of State, ranking only after the Lord High Steward. The Lord Chancellor is appointed by the Sovereign...
, 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 Waddington in the County of York
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
.
As Lord Chief Justice
Parker's style was totally different from Goddard as he confined himself to the higher courts and did not intervene in everyday criminal trials. He had little interest in the social life of the judiciary. He was called upon where a trial had a serious political aspect, and was criticised when he imprisoned journalists who refused to reveal their sources during the Vassall tribunalVassall Tribunal
The Vassall Tribunal was a public inquiry undertaken in 1963 by the British government in the wake of the John Vassall affair. Vassall, a civil servant working in the Admiralty, had been revealed the previous year to be a Soviet spy, and considerable criticism had been leveled at the security...
of 1963. Parker's judgment stated in part "the citizen's highest duty is to the State". Parker also made history when he sentenced George Blake
George Blake
George Blake is a former British spy known for having been a double agent in the service of the Soviet Union. Discovered in 1961 and sentenced to 42 years in prison, he escaped from Wormwood Scrubs prison in 1966 and fled to the USSR...
, convicted of spying, to 42 years imprisonment, the longest sentence then passed in an English court; the conjunction seemed to many to suggest that Parker was too close to the government of the day. Parker had himself said that the Courts "have a positive responsibility to be the handmaiden of administration rather than its governor".
However, Parker was popular among the profession as he secured improvements in judicial salaries and pensions. Parker was a mild reformer who supported legal aid
Legal aid
Legal aid is the provision of assistance to people otherwise unable to afford legal representation and access to the court system. Legal aid is regarded as central in providing access to justice by ensuring equality before the law, the right to counsel and the right to a fair trial.A number of...
and tried to modernise some judicial procedures which he thought were antiquated, such as the assize court system. Like Goddard, Parker took an active part in House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
debates. The most important speech he made was in debates during the passage of the War Damage Act 1965 which has the effect of retrospectively overturning the judicial decision of the House of Lords in Burmah Oil Co. v Lord Advocate
Burmah Oil Co. v Lord Advocate
Burmah Oil Company Ltd. v Lord Advocate, [1965] AC 75, was a court case, raised in Scotland, and decided ultimately in the House of Lords. The case is an important decision in UK constitutional law and had unusual legal repercussions at the time....
thereby depriving the plaintiff of an award of damages. Parker regarded this as an abhorrent idea in principle, but his view did not carry the day. He supported moves to abolish the death penalty
Capital punishment in the United Kingdom
Capital punishment in the United Kingdom was used from the creation of the state in 1707 until the practice was abolished in the 20th century. The last executions in the United Kingdom, by hanging, took place in 1964, prior to capital punishment being abolished for murder...
.
In 1964 Parker instituted the first 'Sentencing conference' to try to get consistency. In the late 1960s he introduced the first formal training for Judges, and welcomed the formation of the Law Commission
Law Commission
A Law Commission or Law Reform Commission is an independent body set up by a government to conduct law reform; that is, to consider the state of laws in a jurisdiction and make recommendations or proposals for legal changes or restructuring...
. When Lord Beeching
Richard Beeching
Richard Beeching, Baron Beeching , commonly known as Doctor Beeching, was chairman of British Railways and a physicist and engineer...
headed a committee looking at court reform in 1971, Parker's memorandum was more radical than the committee's recommendations.
Death
Parker announced his retirement before the committee reported, and died the next year at the cattleCattle
Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...
farm he ran together with his wife of 48 years.