John Widgery, Baron Widgery

Brigadier John Passmore Widgery, Baron Widgery, OBE, TD, QC (July 24, 1911 - July 26, 1981) was a British Judge who served as Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales from 1971 to 1980. He is principally noted for presiding over the Widgery Tribunal on the events of Bloody Sunday.

Early career and war service

Widgery came from a North Devon family who had been living in South Molton for many generations. An ancestor had been a gaoler and his mother served as a Magistrate. He attended Queen's College, Taunton, where he became Head Prefect.

He was admitted a Solicitor in 1933 after serving as an Articled clerk, but instead of going into practice, he joined Gibson and Welldon, a well-known firm of law tutors. He was an effective lecturer in the years leading up to World War II while he was also commissioned into the Royal Engineers (Territorial Army) in 1938, having joined as a Sapper. As a searchlight officer, in 1940 he transferred to the Royal Artillery. Widgery participated in the Normandy landings. By the end of the war he had an OBE, the Croix de Guerre, the Order of Leopold, and had reached the war substantive rank of Brigadier.

Barrister

Demobilization saw Widgery changing to another branch of the legal profession as he was called to the Bar by Lincoln's Inn in 1946. He gathered a reputation for being a fast talker, and eventually came to specialise in disputes over Rating and Town Planning, where his methodical approach and self-control were useful attributes. In 1958 he was made a Queen's Counsel, the first such award given to a post-war Barrister.

Widgery became a Judge of the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court of England and Wales in 1961. As a Judge he did not draw attention to himself and his judgments tended not to include any comments which were pithy, memorable and quotable. However, his calmness produced judgments which were generally regarded as fair and humane within the legal system. Widgery headed several inquiries during his term.

Appellate courts

He received promotion to the Court of Appeal in 1968, but had barely got used to his new position when Lord Parker of Waddington (who had been Lord Chief Justice since 1958) announced his retirement. There was no obvious successor and Widgery was the most junior of the possible appointees. The Lord Chancellor, Lord Hailsham, chose Widgery largely on the basis of his administrative abilities. On 20 April 1971 he received a life peerage as Baron Widgery, of South Molton in the County of Devon.

Widgery tribunal

Shortly after taking over, Widgery was handed the very politically sensitive job of conducting an inquiry into the events of January 30, 1972 in Derry where troops from the Parachute Regiment had killed 14 civil rights marchers, commonly referred to as Bloody Sunday. Widgery was faced with testimony from the soldiers that they had been shot at, while the marchers insisted that no-one from the march was armed. Widgery brought out a report which took the army's side; his fiercest criticism was that the firing "bordered on the reckless". The Widgery tribunal was immediately denounced by nationalists in Ireland as a whitewash. [cite web | title = More 'butcher' than 'grocer' | author = David Granville | url = http://www.irishdemocrat.co.uk/features/more-butcher-than-grocer/ | publisher = "The Morning Star" | date = 28 July, 2005 | accessdate = 2007-05-18] [cite web | title = Schooled in scandal | author = Nick Cohen | url = http://politics.guardian.co.uk/kelly/comment/0,,1136486,00.html | publisher = "The Guardian" | date = 1 February, 2004 | accessdate = 2007-05-18] [cite web | title = 1972: 'Bloody Sunday' report excuses Army | author = | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/19/newsid_2491000/2491125.stm | publisher = BBC News | date = | accessdate = 2007-05-18]

Lord Chief Justice

Widgery also found himself ruling on the Crossman diaries case when the government attempted to suppress the publication on the grounds of confidentiality. He made it clear during the case that he felt Crossman had 'broken the rules', but ultimately refused to grant an injunction preventing publication. In criminal cases, Widgery became concerned by an increasing number of cases resting on weak identification evidence. He declared in 1974 that misidentification was "the most serious chink in our armour when we say British justice is the best in the world".

In March 1976 Widgery dismissed the first appeal by the Birmingham Six in respect of the Birmingham pub bombings ["Miscarriages of Justice"; Bob Woffinden (1987)] .

His later years in office were marred by persistent ill health and mental decline. In "Private Eye" no. 436 (September 1, 1978) it was observed that "he sits hunched and scowling, squinting into his books from a range of three inches, his wig awry. He keeps up a muttered commentary of bad-tempered and irrelevant questions – 'What d'you say?', 'Speak up', 'Don't shout', 'Whipper-snapper', etc.". He resisted attempts to get him to resign until the last moment in 1980. For at least 18 months previously he had not been in control of either his administrative work or his legal pronouncements, and it soon became apparent that he was suffering from dementia, and he died two days following his 70th birthday in 1981.

References

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NAME= Widgery, John, Baron Widgery
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DATE OF BIRTH=1911
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DATE OF DEATH=1981
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