Michael Coulson (barrister)

(James) Michael Coulson (23 November 1927 – 18 June 2002) was a British barrister and judge, who also had a political career. He was also an enthusiastic horse rider, huntsman and farmer, and was known at the Bar for his outstanding memory.

Family

Coulson was from an East Riding Yorkshire family in Driffield; his father was a wealthy wool merchant. He attended the independent Fulneck School in Leeds as a boarding pupil before going up to Merton College, Oxford. His National Service was spent in the East Riding Yeomanry in the Wenlocks Horse.

Early career

In 1951 Coulson was called to the Bar by the Middle Temple, and joined the North Eastern Circuit, although he also participated in London cases. At the same time he became active in the Young Conservatives and did much to improve their organisation in the north of England, including drafting their constitution. He was an active member of the Territorial Army in the Queen's Own Yorkshire Yeomanry where he received a commission as a Major.

Marriage and farming

In 1955 he married Dilys Adair Jones, a marriage which also brought him a 400-acre (1.6 km²) farm on the Jones estate at Bolton Percy near Tadcaster. Coulson enjoyed farming and trained at the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester, but suffered an embarrassing failure while attempting to farm turkeys in a cold winter. He was forced to herd them into the farmhouse airing cupboard to keep them warm, and eventually the stockman poisoned the entire flock in a dispute with Coulson's father-in-law. Coulson also enjoyed horse riding, including fox hunting, and acted as ecretary to meetings of the Bramham Moor and York and Ainsty Point to Point Race.

Political advancement

Elected to Tadcaster Rural District Council, Coulson had higher ambitions and in 1958 was selected as Conservative Party candidate for Kingston upon Hull North, a seat the Conservatives held by a knife-edge majority of 590. After energetically campaigning, he won the seat at the 1959 general election with a majority which increased to 702. His maiden speech was regarded as outstandingly witty and was reported in Punch.

Parliamentary career

Coulson was a loyal supporter of Harold Macmillan and Sir Alec Douglas-Home, but made his contribution by introducing a successful Private Member's Bill to abolish the farthing as legal tender. In 1962 he was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Solicitor General Sir Peter Rawlinson. He also had an interest in Commonwealth affairs and was a member of the executive committee of the Conservative Commonwealth Council.

Judge

Losing his seat at the 1964 general election, Coulson received a promotion in his legal career as Assistant Recorder of Sheffield in 1965. He was made Deputy Chairman of the Northern Agricultural Land Tribunal in 1967, and served there for six years; from 1968 he was a Regional Chairman of Industrial Tribunals.

His marriage under strain, in the 1970s Coulson moved to the East Midlands to become a fulltime chairman of Industrial Tribunals. He became a member of the Belvoir Hunt and in 1977, a hunting acquaintance twenty years his junior (Barbara Chambers) became his second wife. From 1981 he worked as a Recorder of the Crown Court, and from 1983 he was a Circuit Judge on the Midland and Oxford Circuit. In his home village of Wymondham near Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, he was known as the "hunting Judge".

In 1990 Coulson received his final promotion as a Deputy Circuit Judge. In 1994 he awarded Trevor McAuley £6,000 for unfair dismissal and injury to his feelings after McAuley said that he had been a victim of a vicious and highly organised campaign of making fun of his Irish accent. Coulson retired in 1998 at the age of 70.

References

• "His Honour Michael Coulson" (Obituary), The Times, 25 July 2002
• M. Stenton and S. Lees, "Who's Who of British MPs" Vol. IV (Harvester Press, 1981)
• "Who Was Who", A & C Black

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Michael Coulson

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Austen Hudson	Member of Parliament for Kingston upon Hull North 1959–1964	Succeeded by Henry Solomons

Persondata
Name	Coulson, Michael
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	23 November 1927
Place of birth
Date of death	18 June 2002
Place of death