Meeting Lord Denning

'Meeting' makes for a snappy title to this post, but of course Lord Denning died in 1999, so in fact I could only present myself at the grave he shared with his second wife Joan. And to see one other thing connected with him. More of both anon.

He was Lord Denning of Whitchurch. Whitchurch is a small town in north Hampshire. I went back to see it again on 7th July, just over a month ago. It hadn't changed much. I was last there in 2003 when M--- and I had a stroll around the place on a warm April afternoon. Before that, on a Saturday in 1975, when I tried to attend the wedding of a work colleague at the parish church. I turned up late, underestimating how long it would take to drive myself from Southampton to Whitchurch. The service had already begun. I felt awkward about opening the church door, and perhaps interrupting the ceremony at a critical moment. I gave up and because I was dressed too well for a country walk, or even to look around the shops in Winchester, I just went home. 

Whitchurch was historically an important market town, and the first location of Messrs Portal, who until 2022 made the special paper required by the Bank of England for its paper money. Whitchurch is on the River Test, one of Hampshire's two best fishing rivers, the other being the Itchen. The town once boasted many watermills. Here is the water-wheel at one of them, taken by me on holiday in 2005:

    

Few things are more soothing or mesmerising than slowly-moving water and the swish, swish, swish of lazy machinery. 

But back to Lord Denning. He lived a long time, being born in 1899. The law of England was his passion. He was called to the Bar (that is, allowed to speak in court on behalf of a client) in 1923, and took silk, becoming a KC, in 1938. His rise continued. He became a judge in 1944, an Appeal Judge in 1948, was made Baron Denning in 1957, and then finally Master of the Rolls, the ultimate Appeal Judge so to speak, in 1962. He held that position until 1982, when after twenty years of deciding the most important Common Law cases, he retired - only to commence a series of influential books on the history and current state of the law. I read two or three of them during the 1980s, and in 1988 actually bought one that he had published in 1984, Landmarks In The Law, which is about key decided cases in our history. Here it is, in a photo I took when lounging about on that holiday in 2005:

It covered these subject areas:

High Treason

Torture and Bribery

The fate of past Lord Chancellors

Martyrdom

Matrimonial Affairs

Freedom of the Individual

General Warrants

Freedom of the Press

Persecution

Murder

His most important case - the Profumo Inquiry

His own life in retirement, with comments on cricket, the beauties of Whitchurch, and the joys of family life in mellow years.

I think you will agree that this is an interesting list. I hope it will encourage you to get a copy of his book and read it for yourself. It's written in his very recognisable style, and is easy to follow and absorb. The cases concern many historical figures you will have heard of, though not always to their credit, and tell of shocking deeds and perverse miscarriages of justice that created a backlash and led to a change in the law. 

Lord Denning wrote half a dozen books in retirement. All concerned the law. Each was greatly anticipated, and each was received with proper seriousness, for he had become a national figure of immense weight. He profoundly overhauled the Common Law of England - meaning the law that is made by judges on the many matters not subject to Statute Law (which is that body of strictly-defined law contained in Acts of Parliament: tax law, for instance, which I had to pay close attention to all my own working life). Common Law is dynamic, based on what you might call natural or fundamental principles, some of them many centuries old. But it can develop as modern life introduces new situations and standards. Common Law tries to keep up with the times, although it is also subject to the rule of precedent, where any principle established by a judge must be followed by subsequent judges unless the case currently being decided by them features something entirely new or different, so that new ground can be broken. Lord Denning did not like being bound by narrow hoary precedent, especially if it led to an injustice. He felt that the first duty of a judge was to be bold, and intervene if it would achieve the right and proper outcome, and 'do justice'. He became famous for clearly-expressed, far-reaching, innovative and important judgements that swooped in like a breath of fresh air. 

But some of his judgements were controversial. Not everyone approved of them. So some were overturned. But mostly not. He became a household name, and (at least to many) a well-loved figure. The man on the cover of my book does indeed look old and wise, and if not necessarily kindly then at any rate a person who understands human nature. The sort of person I can speak easily to. I do wish we had met. 

Well, I did what I  could. I would find his grave. My first port of call was the parish church at Whitchurch. He was not there. There was no memorial to him, except a note that one of the bells, the newest, was called 'Great Tom' in his honour. It was ready for his 100th birthday in 1999. 

His grave must be in the town cemetery. I looked it up and found it. It was only a short walk away. I already knew that it was no big, gaudy grave. It was modest. In fact, after a methodical search that took me to a quiet corner of the cemetery, I saw just how modest it was. Here are my pictures of it. 

The carved words that mention him were not prominent, certainly not the bit about his being Lord Denning of Whitchurch, which were almost hidden by the grass and those neglected flower pots. And they came underneath the larger words about Joan, his second wife, whom he married in 1945. (She was 92 when she died in 1992. So he was eight years a widower)

It was a very ordinary grave that you might easily walk past and never pay attention to. Yet this had been one of the best-known judges of the last century. Even so, I felt that he wouldn't have minded ending up in this small and very plain grave. I am also sure that back in 1999, when he died, the people of Whitchurch considered something grander for their most famous son. It could be highlighted as a must-see tourist stop. But that didn't happen. And so Lord Denning's bones rest at peace, tucked away, undisturbed and unnoticed.

And the other thing I saw? 

Just inside from the entrance to the cemetery was a shelter, shaped a bit like a merry-go-round, with dividing walls. On each wall was a wood-carving on a panel, showing a religious scene. I don't know who the artist was, nor when these rather good carvings were done, but I'm guessing it was shortly after Lord Denning died: in the year 2000 perhaps, perhaps as a Millennium thing. One of them commemorated Lord and Lady Denning.

Here are some of the other panels. There were eight in all.

I think that the same artist carved this panel at the entrance itself.

Well, that was that. Show over. Nothing more to see.

I did wonder whether a statue of Lord Denning exists - outside the Law Courts in London, maybe. But somehow I doubt it. If there ever was one, it would be a target for those who are alert for prejudicial remarks, and instantly take extreme offence. For Lord Denning said some dismissive and disparaging things about certain groups of people. Certainly those whom he felt were the irredeemable enemies of traditional English Christian life and values, a threat to proper standards of decency and morality, and likely to be disloyal to Crown and Country. Above all, he surely had distaste for those for whom the beauty and gentle pursuits of rural England, and especially Hampshire, meant nothing. 

I'm not saying I'm exactly like he was, but I know what he meant.

I now have a disabled toilet key!

On the advice of a friend, I have been online and bought a disabled toilet key - see https://shop.disabilityrightsuk.org/products/radar-key - so that I can use one of those locked toilets for disabled people.  

I am not of course officially disabled. The aches and pains of my advancing years don't really count. Nor does my bad right knee, especially on a good day. But more than once I've wished that I could get into a disabled toilet when ordinary ones have been shut, usually in the evenings, or perhaps all day in winter. Of course, large supermarkets have toilets, but it feels wrong to pop in and out without buying anything. And you definitely shouldn't misuse a pub or hotel like that. But surely even cash-strapped councils, who close ordinary public toilets in the winter if they can, keep locked toilets available for disabled folk who need to go. You just need a key to get in. 

Obviously, using a disabled toilet is a way of jumping any queue outside an ordinary public loo. Even so, I'd have no qualms about doing that if my need were pressing. But in principle my new key will be an emergency standby, not to be routinely or frivolously used, and I must be sure that I don't keep a properly-disabled person waiting outside while I'm doing my stuff inside. Although, as they say, not every disability shows. Maybe that's a line I can trot out if I emerge and encounter somebody in a wheelchair who has got soaked in the rain. Maybe I'd better carry my stick around more often, to suggest a degree of impairment. I imagine that truly disabled persons get very annoyed if their special facilities are usurped by sprightly types who could easily go somewhere else.

The key itself looks like this:

It's not really pocket-friendly. You could certainly carry it around in a bag, but it's just a little too long and substantial to attach to a keyring. I'm going to keep mine in the car, for use when away from home and out and about. 

I'm a bit sceptical about one key opening all disabled doors, all over the country. I suppose it will. Well, I'll be trying it out as soon as possible.