Master Araba Taylor was born on Tuesday 18 July 1961 in Cambridge and began her education at Berkhamsted School for Girls. She excelled academically and was also a talented musician and actress, playing viola and piano as well as singing. She later moved to Luton Sixth Form College where she achieved As in English, History and French. In addition, she took S Level (Special Level) exams for English and French, passing both with a distinction and merit respectively.
Her father, Kobina Taylor, read medicine at Christ’s College, Cambridge and Araba followed in his footsteps, reading law from 1979-1982. The college only began accepting female students a year earlier, and as a result, Araba was the first black woman to study at the college. In her first year she joined Middle Temple because it was her family’s Inn. Her uncle, Ernest Taylor, was a member as a Gold Coast student, and went on to found the Ghana Law School and, as an MP in their first Parliament, to be its first Attorney General. Her mother also joined the Inn to begin her external London LLB course.
Araba attended her first Cumberland Lodge Weekend in 1981 and was invited to apply for a chancery pupillage at 1 New Square. She was awarded a Harmsworth Entrance Exhibition Scholarship, becoming a Harmsworth Scholar when she was Called to the Bar in 1985. She took up her chancery pupillage with Sir James Munby in September of that year.
In 1992, Araba became involved with the weekend advocacy training before Middle Temple Advocacy formally came into existence and worked as a Scholarship Interviewer for over 25 years. She was always impressed by the character and determination of the applicants and felt reassured that the profession’s future would be in safe hands. Similarly, she enjoyed working on the Church Committee and being closely involved in the work and worship of the Temple Church and Choir. She also attended various musical events at the Inn, in particular the jazz evenings.
Araba cared deeply about diversity issues at Middle Temple and beyond. She said it was an honour and a privilege to participate in the governance of the Inn as a Bencher, especially as the role would enable her to help tackle these issues.
Alongside this, Araba was a practitioner-teacher at the Inns of Court School of Law (ICSL), where she also sat on the Board of Examiners. She was a Governor of the ICSL when it first began its association with City University, and a member of the Bar Council’s Continuing Education Sub-Committee. She was also a member of the Bar Council Disciplinary Panel for four years.
Having joined the Inn for family reasons, she said that it had become ‘very much like a family’ to her, during her Bench Call speech in 2019. Through her ups and downs, she felt that the Inn was very supportive, and she stayed in touch with many of the friends she made here. Araba was particularly grateful to Jean Austin for her support throughout her early years, and to Master Nigel Sweeney, who was her sponsor. Similarly, she was incredibly grateful to Master Michael Ashe, who was her Head of Chambers, fellow trainer and friend for many years. She felt that Middle Temple was a very special place and that it had always felt like a home to her.
After being Called to the Bar, Araba received her tenancy at Lincoln’s Inn in 1987 and was the first black person of any gender at the specialist chancery Bar. In 2001, she was appointed as a Senior Law Lecturer for Civil Litigation, Private Client and Property Law on the LPC and LLB programmes at the University of Hertfordshire. She was also a member of the Ghana Lawyers Association, which she helped to found in 1995. Araba moved to Fenners Chambers in Cambridge after 22 years at Lincoln’s Inn, where she was recognised in the Legal 500 and the Cambridge Independent as one of the region’s leading businesswomen.
In pursuit of her profound concerns about homelessness, Araba served as a charity trustee for the Croydon Association for the Young Single Homeless until 2010 and volunteered as a trustee for JustUs Homelessness Advocacy in Bedford.
In 2013, she was appointed as a Deputy District Judge (Civil) and was authorised to sit on the specialist chancery lists at Central London County Court in 2017. Following her MA in Canon Law, Araba was appointed Deputy Chancellor of the Diocese of Southwark; Deputy Commissary General and Deputy Vicar General for the City and Diocese of Canterbury; Panel Chair for Bishop’s Disciplinary Tribunals of the Province of Canterbury; and became a member of the Legal Advisory Commission of the Church of England. Araba was also made an Honorary member of the Cambridge Union, having served as a Trustee between 2018-2023.
Araba settled in Bedford in 2011, where her mother joined her in 2019 until she also passed away in October 2023. She has two surviving sons, James Asare and Felix Asare, whom she adored.
Obituary written by Felix Asare.
