It was a glorious day on the Wirral. The sunshine did its best to brighten the otherwise sombre realisation that this would be my final time with David. It is a measure of the popularity of a man, and of the affection in which he is held, that I was not alone in wanting to see David that day. A veritable queue had formed. Each of us wanting to spend a little of our time with a man who had given so much of his own to us all.
When David’s death was announced – exactly a week later – it was fitting, although a little discombobulating, to be informed of the same by an email from ‘David Lynch’. I say fitting, because no matter how quick off the mark a leader strives to be, he (or she) lacks what David had at his fingertips – an encyclopaedic knowledge of Circuit and its Circuiteers. He also had an uncanny knack of knowing these things before anyone else. In short, David was always one step ahead. And so, whilst leaders (past and present) would scrabble to amass the correct facts and to disseminate them to Circuit, David would invariably – and accurately – beat them to it. The email – sent on his account by his son – was profoundly sad, of course. But I think David would have rather liked the fact that, yet again, he was the first one to tell us.
He had that rare gift – even rarer, dare I say, in our profession – of being knowledgeable without being a know-it-all. Those who have had the privilege of holding office on our Circuit have been fortunate indeed by having David at their side; for his knowledge was indispensable and his treasure trove of anecdotes a joy. Little wonder we called him ‘the Oracle.’ Countless times we have consulted him when short on fact (and time). He never let us down. He had time for us all.
Such was David’s knowledge of, and affection for, the Circuit his view on things was invariably right…a true great of the Circuit. And his greatness lay comfortably alongside his kindness and his geniality. Jaime Hamilton KC, Leader of the Northern Circuit
David’s achievements (before and after his retirement) were remarkable. It is with characteristic sensitivity that David credits his success to his beloved wife, Ann, who died last year after nearly 50 years of marriage. He and Ann were plainly meant to be, for within four months of their first meeting they were married. Christopher was born in 1976, followed by Peter two years later. They adored their boys, and were enormously proud not only of their achievements, but, more importantly, of what fine and sensitive young men they became. And what joy Lily and Eddy brought in more recent years. David was nothing short of besotted with his two beautiful grandchildren. He was gracious always to credit not only the success and happiness of family life to Ann, but also all that he had achieved in his long and illustrious career. This from Ann’s eulogy last year:
…supporting David’s career at the Bar and on the Bench, his activities with the Northern Circuit, Middle Temple and latterly his recent five years studies at Liverpool John Moores University. Ann was with him every step of the way and he knows he would have achieved little without her love and unfailing support.
David was dependable, patient and kind – epithets which are often hijacked as a euphemistic way of saying ‘dull’. But that couldn’t have been further from the truth. David had a quick wit, a cheeky riposte when needed and he was refreshingly irreverent. For a man so steeped in the hierarchical ‘establishment’ that is our profession, he saw it for what it was: he valued talent and hard work over status and high office, although he was no stranger to either. For it was David’s work ethic and determination, coupled with his enviable ability, that led to his achievements and his success in life. Not for him, the silver spoon of a ‘leg up’. All the more laudable when his own progression ‘through the ranks’ was against a backdrop of legal luminaries who had generations of forefathers (and rarely foremothers) to pave the way. He never forgot where he had started or took for granted where he had got to. He had a charming insouciance for the fake ‘pomp’ which occasionally attaches itself to the job he and we love. Instead, he respected and found joy in all that was genuinely great about our profession. Which is fitting, really, as he genuinely was one such great.
The esteem in which David was held by the Northern Circuit will not be matched. Or, if it is, not until that individual has put half a century of hard yards into earning it.
And in a profession where we are often too quick to judge, David was in a rare and elite group of those about whom no one ever had a bad word to say. Little wonder he garnered such admiration from colleagues across the Circuit:
His achievements for the Circuit, the Inn and the students of LJMU were quite outstanding…he was indefatigable in his quest for knowledge and for any way in which he could help those less privileged than himself. A true Circuit giant! HH Clement Goldstone KC, former Honorary Recorder of Liverpool
My one regret – as I said to David when he asked me to write this – is that he would not be able to read the tributes that flooded in upon his death. I have seen but a snapshot of the people who loved David – this was his job, but not his life. And so as much as we lay claim to David being ‘ours’ and see him very much through the prism of Circuit, we must remember that he is mourned by his family and a legion of friends, neighbours and academic colleagues. Each will have their own reflections upon a remarkable father, grandfather and friend.
This can but be a tribute to David from us – his Circuit family.
And so, where to begin? How to write about the man who wrote about all of us? He is Liverpool’s son, of course, and so to the great and the good of that fair city I turned when, in the absence of the Oracle himself, I needed some oracular inspiration. ‘Please send me your tributes’, I asked – and tributes came there plenty. To friends and colleagues across Circuit for their bons mots and the photographs they sent me, thank you. But most of all I am grateful to David. Turns out he was a rather reliable chronicler of himself. Never before have my copies of the directories been so well-thumbed. For most of us, our one achievement in the 10 years or so between the publication of the Directory (1876 – 2004) and the Supplement (2005 – 2015) results in the one line it deserves. If we are lucky, an updated photo. (Although the older – and thus younger – photos are often better.) David was unique in having an entry in the Supplement which surpassed that of the Directory. All the more remarkable when the 10 years or so between Book the First and Book the Second took him well into his seventies. A man whose stamina for productivity and activity increased the older he got. What better example of a role model?
Born on Wednesday 23 August 1939, David was just shy of his 85th birthday when he died, peacefully, on Thursday 8 August 2024. He is survived by his sons, Christopher and Peter – ‘the boys’– and by the ‘little ones’, his grandchildren, Lily and Eddy. He was devoted to them all and, realising he had a captive and willing audience, would not hesitate to share photos of the little ones. Indeed, one of the first emails I received post the lockdown of March 2020 was from David enclosing a joyful photo of Lily. More such precious photos would follow – as would another grandchild, Eddy – sent by one rejoicing in all that grand fatherhood entailed and gratefully received by one who rather regretted that her own were no longer that size.
David is one of Liverpool’s very own. Raised by his father, Harry, a motor mechanic, David would tell people, ‘I was raised in Toxteth. I went to Granby Street School. I then attended the Liverpool Collegiate and I am proud of all of it.’
David passed the 11 plus and was certainly sufficiently able to have pursued a further and then higher educational route, but instead he left school at 15 in order to supplement the family income. His introduction to the law was as an office boy for a local firm of solicitors, Sharman and Sons, until 1958 when he did National Service for three years. He served in the RAF (Signals Intelligence) in Germany where he once encountered a certain Elvis Presley. Their paths had briefly crossed at an airbase, and he seized the opportunity to shake Elvis’s hand. Well, you would, wouldn’t you?
In 1961, David returned home to become a litigation clerk with Bremner Sons & Corlett; a full-time job which he juggled, successfully, alongside studying for two A levels and an external London LLB degree in 1965. His passion lay on our side of the profession, though, and often was the time that David would spend in court sitting behind counsel, thus cementing his decision to jump over the fence. In his own words, ‘I fancied becoming a barrister.’
David was Called to the Bar by the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple on Thursday 28 March 1968. Thus began a long and happy association with the Inn culminating in his being made a Bencher in 2016. This was a moment of immense pride for David. And as is only right and proper, Middle Temple lowered their flag on Monday 12 August 2024 upon news of his death.
David was pupilled to Keith Lawton at North House Chambers (a forerunner of 7HS). And it was Keith who, on Sunday 15 June 1969, seconded David’s election to the Circuit he was to come to love. In the 55 years that followed, David observed and then chronicled the transformation of the Northern Circuit.
When I was called in 1968, there were 252 names on the Northern Circuit Bar list. There are now [2005] over 1000. In 1968 only 19 were women (7.5%). Of the 161 elected between July 2002 and December 2004, there were 72 women (44.7%).
In the time between the publication of the Directory (2005) and the Supplement (2015) a further 400 members were elected to Circuit. Many more still since then, taking our numbers to around 1500. David chronicled them all. A third volume will be published soon. David bequeathed that task to David Hoffman (18 SJS). I am indebted to him, but I do not envy him. Mercifully, David had continued to work tirelessly, even when not in the best of health, such that Book the Third is – as he told me on that final visit – ‘bang up to date.’ Posthumously publishing David’s final oeuvre seems the very least Circuit can do. And it will be Circuit’s honour so to do.
In short, David was the kind of judge who, in the ‘90s, we young novices were relieved to encounter. Back then, one’s day at court could quite often involve a round or two of judicial roulette. It was not just counsel who were glad of his company. His fellow judges delighted in his humour, his wisdom and his charm, and lamented the fact that his retirement in 2005 meant also his departure from the judicial coffee club. A tradition which, I hope, still lives on…
David was a passionate supporter of education and, unlike many others who lay claim to that accolade, he walked the walk. In 1994 he became the Liaison Judge for Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU). He revelled in all that the role offered, and the students were the lucky recipients of that enthusiasm. For most of his time on the Bench he would be accompanied by two students from LJMU where he was made an honorary Fellow in 2003. He was an inspiration to the best and brightest of students. Such was his love of the place that, upon retirement, he completed first a Masters and then a PhD in United States Legal History. The PhD was published in 2016, following which he became a research fellow at LJMU. It was, as he acknowledged, rather late in life to be experiencing ‘student life’ for the first time. But for David, it was never too late for anything. He continued to speak to law undergraduates and pupil barristers until the very moment when he couldn’t.
David, it is a good job that it was you, and not me, in charge of chronicling our lives. It took you eight years to compile the first volume, and 20 years or so honing volumes II and III. But you captured hundreds of us and did so quietly and, or so it seemed, without the need to trouble others for information. It has taken me, well, suffice to say it has taken me quite a while, during which time I have troubled quite a few people in order to compile something of the life of just one Circuiteer. But what a Circuiteer. The truth is, whilst my ‘informants’ and I have managed to capture much of what you achieved, I fear I have failed to capture the half of what you meant to us all. We admired and respected you, of course. But moreover, we loved you. You didn’t ‘do god’ – as you told me a few weeks back. It may be why you thought I was a safe pair of hands for your obituary. But permit me to say this – may you rest in activity and in your constant curiosity for knowledge. And may you do so surrounded by your beloved Circuit.
Lisa Roberts KC
Reproduced with kind permission from Lisa Roberts KC and The Journal of the Northern Circuit of the Bar. To read the full obituary, please click here.
