In this section...
The North Eastern Circuit (1876 - 2022) - A Selective History written by HH Robert Taylor and reviewed by Raymond Cocks, Emeritus Professor of Law, Keele University
(Published by the North Eastern Circuit: Printed and bound by Smith Settle Printing and Bookbinding Ltd., Yeadon, Leeds, 2022)
It is a long time since I wrote on the Circuits of England and Wales but am delighted to have been given a copy of this new study of an important Circuit with its own very distinctive characteristics. Clearly, the book makes good and detailed use of a range of sources
whenever they are available. A wide variety of professional issues are discussed. These include the sometimes lively and contested relationship with the members of other circuits including of course barristers on the Northern; the significant increase in 'local' chambers rather than those in London; the placing of the Junior's Office in commission at one time; relationships with the press; the location of 'Grand Courts'; the difficulties experienced during the war years; 'refugees' from the Irish bar; the death of a Circuit butler; debates over dock briefs; the twilight of the assizes and the birth of the Crown Court; the revival of the Bar's fortunes; improvements to Circuit administration; the centenary dinner. And many more matters of note.
Of central significance for any study of Circuit life is the role of individuals. Good advocates and not so good advocates. Sociable people and not so sociable people. Ambitious barristers and others with more modest thoughts about their futures. Some who got caught up in scandals and others scaling the heights of probity despite temptations. Accordingly, the book is appropriately strong on the study of individuals and it is difficult to do it justice without giving example after example. But consider, say, Gilbert Gray (1928-2011) who "was perhaps the last great exponent of what might be called the 'theatrical school of advocacy', which reached its height in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods with such stars as Sir Edward Marshall Hall Q.C.". Some members of the Circuit demand our attention through their eminence. To give a conspicuous example, Peter Murray Taylor, Baron Taylor of Gosforth of Embleton (1930- 1997) became Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales in 1992: "someone of outstanding abilities, who achieved great things". But nor should we forget a character such as Wilfred Reed Steer (1926- 2011) who was "first and foremost a criminal defender. It was said that he rarely appeared for the prosecution as he was unhappy about being responsible for someone being sent to prison. Presumably for the same reason, he never sought a judicial appointment". Wilf had a variety of robust exchanges with the judiciary. For example, Jupp J. told him at one point "But Mr. Steer, I do not understand". To which Wilf replied "My Lord, I am afraid I can only explain to your Lordship, I cannot make your Lordship understand". Rebels have always played a role in Circuit life, and it has often been constructive.
Beneath the level of numerous topics the study is impressive for keeping its 'eye' on certain themes. At times the treatment of women barristers was not only, in the words of the author, "shocking and offensive" it was also of considerable interest as an important event in the history of the profession and Circuit institutions. Going beyond the present book, in the nineteenth century long before women could become barristers there was debate on the Home Circuit (later part of the South Eastern) over whether it was possible for anyone to practice without being a member of the Circuit. There had been a precedent for doing so on what was then the Norfolk Circuit. (see, generally, Raymond Cocks, Foundations of the Modern Bar, 1983). It was as if the profession on Circuit sought to define itself by trying to draw a line between the professional and the social. In retrospect it can be seen that these events were part of a process designed to sort out what was of professional importance. Throughout the country, the story is full of uncertainty for the simple reason that exclusion from any Mess was likely to carry a stigma which was both socially and professionally discriminatory. This context was likely to produce acute difficulties for women. Taylor points out that on the North Eastern in debates between 5th March 1921and 14 March 1922 there was "effective unanimity that Mess should remain the exclusive preserve of the male membership". Women could join the Circuit but not the Mess. In the words of one member "he did not wish to see the circuit mess reduced to the level of a mixed dinner party". The author also notes that "in the years after the First World War, the general tone of the Mess became perceptibly coarser" and he goes on to make relevant parallels with behaviour on the Northern and Western Circuits. On the North Eastern in the Circuit's Centenary Year the first woman was elected to the Office of Junior. This appointment "occurring as it did more than fifty years after women had been allowed to join the Circuit, and just ten years after they had first been allowed to dine in the Mess, was clearly an event of great symbolic importance". Indeed it was. It was important in terms both of elementary fairness and as an indication as to how the profession saw its role within the administration of justice. (By way of comparison, for a grim study of disputes in the middle of the last century over the roles of women within the academic world of the Society of Public Teachers of Law see Fiona Cownie and Raymond Cocks, 'A Great and Noble Occupationr (2009) particularly at Chapters Four and Five). Elsewhere, the present study of the North Eastern does not flinch from considering contentious issues, including racial discrimination.
We owe a debt to the author of this new book. It is plainly the product of extensive research and it is clear and balanced in its analysis. It reveals the author as a thoughtful person who, as it were, sees events and people passing before his eyes, and records them in interesting ways. Taken as a whole, the book mirrors 150 years of social and legal change.
Raymond Cocks September 2023
Note. Anyone interested in the years leading up to the creation of the Circuit can look at p. 1 of Taylor1s book and then turn to R. Walton, Random Recollections of the Midland Circuit, (Second Series, London, printed for the author at the Chiswick Press, 1873). At p. 162 there is a section with the title: "Yorkshire United to the Midland Circuit - Leeds the Capital of the West Riding, Made an Assize Town". The section starts with: "The closing month of the year 1863 witnessed Yorkshire being attached to, and becoming an integral and the most important part of the Midland Circuit".