- Gerald Thesiger
The Hon. Sir Gerald Alfred Thesiger MBE QC (born
25 December 1902 , died 1981) was a British High CourtJudge of theQueen's Bench Division between 1958 and 1978.Background and education
The son of Major-General
George Handcock Thesiger and his wife Frances Fremantle, daughter of General Fitzroy William Fremantle, he was educated atGresham's School , Holt, Magdalen College, Oxford (1922-1925), and theInner Temple .Thesiger's grandfather was Lt.-General the Hon. Charles Wemyss Thesiger, a younger son of a
Lord Chancellor ,Frederic Thesiger, 1st Baron Chelmsford .The British general Frederic Thesiger, 2nd Baron Chelmsford, and the judge
Alfred Henry Thesiger (one of the youngest Lords Justices of Appeal in history) were his great-uncles.Career
In 1926, he was admitted as a
barrister . He was appointed Recorder of Rye in 1937.During
World War II , he was commissioned as a Major in the Office of the Judge Advocate General, and was appointed Recorder ofHastings in 1942. He wasMayor ofFulham , 1944 to 1946. He took silk as aKing's Counsel in 1948 and was appointed Recorder ofSouthend-on-Sea in 1952. He became a Bencher of the Inner Temple in 1956 and served as a High CourtJudge of theQueen's Bench Division between 1958 and 1978.He was the judge in the famous
ABC trial , anOfficial Secrets Act case in 1978.Honours
*Member of the
Order of the British Empire , 1946
*Knight , 1958
*President of the British Academy of Forensic SciencesPublications
*"The Judge and the Expert Witness" in "Medicine,Science and the Law", 1975, volume 15
Family
On 28 July 1932, Thesiger married Marjorie Ellen Guille, daughter of Raymond Guille, and they had three daughters, Oonah Caroline Thesiger (born 1936), Virginia Mary (born 1941, died 1972), and Juliet Elizabeth (born 1943).
References
*"Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage", ed. Charles Mosley (107th edition, 3 volumes, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 2003), volume 1, page 759.
*"Who's Who, 1980" (A & C Black, 1980)
* [http://www.thepeerage.com/p8285.htm Gerald Thesiger at thepeerage.com]
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