Barbara Mills
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Dame Barbara Jean Lyon Mills DBE, QC (''
née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...
'' Warnock; 10 August 1940 – 28 May 2011) was a British
barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and givin ...
. She held various senior public appointments including
Director of Public Prosecutions The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is the office or official charged with the prosecution of criminal offences in several criminal jurisdictions around the world. The title is used mainly in jurisdictions that are or have been members o ...
, and was widely seen as a pioneer for women gaining such appointments in the higher echelons of the legal profession.Dame Barbara Mills
obituary in ''The Independent'' (London), 7 June 2011
At the time of her death she was chair of the
Professional Oversight Board The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) is an independent regulator in the UK and Ireland based in London Wall in the City of London, responsible for regulating auditors, accountants and actuaries, and setting the UK's Corporate Governance and ...
.


Early life and education

She was born in
Chorleywood Chorleywood is both a village and a civil parish in the Three Rivers District, Hertfordshire, on the border with Buckinghamshire, approximately northwest of Charing Cross. The village is adjacent to the Chiltern Hills Area of Outstanding Natu ...
, the daughter of John and Nora Warnock. Her father was a chartered accountant. She was educated at St. Helen's School, Northwood, where she became head girl, and then studied law at
Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford Lady Margaret Hall (LMH) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, located on the banks of the River Cherwell at Norham Gardens in north Oxford and adjacent to the University Parks. The college is more form ...
, graduating in the second class in 1962.


Career

Mills was
called to the Bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...
from the
Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's I ...
in 1963. She became a barrister at 3 Temple Gardens in 1967, in chambers headed by Edward Cussens. She had a successful career as a barrister, specialising in criminal prosecution. She became a prosecuting counsel in 1977, then junior Treasury Counsel at the
Central Criminal Court A Central Criminal Court refers to major legal court responsible for trying crimes within a given jurisdiction. Such courts include: *The name by which the Crown Court is known when it sits in the City of London *Central Criminal Court of England a ...
in 1981. She secured the convictions of Michael Fagan, an Irish vagrant who broke into Buckingham Palace in 1982 and stole a bottle of wine, exposing the Palace's lax security; of the Brighton bomber Patrick Magee in 1986; and of the Guinness Four in 1990. She defended
Winston Silcott Winston Silcott (born 1959),Winston Silcott: An infamous past
(
when he was tried for the
murder of Keith Blakelock Keith Henry Blakelock QGM, a London Metropolitan Police constable, was murdered on 6 October 1985 during rioting at the Broadwater Farm housing estate in Tottenham, north London. The riot broke out after Cynthia Jarrett died of heart failu ...
in the
Broadwater Farm riot The Broadwater Farm riot occurred on the Broadwater council estate in Tottenham, North London, on 6 October 1985. The events of the day were dominated by two deaths. The first was that of Cynthia Jarrett, an Afro-Caribbean woman who died the p ...
in 1985; Silcott was convicted in 1987, but the conviction was quashed on appeal in 1991. She became a
recorder Recorder or The Recorder may refer to: Newspapers * ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper * ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US * ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a news ...
in 1982, and took silk to become a Queen's Counsel in 1986. She was a member of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board from 1988 to 1990, a legal assessor of the
General Medical Council The General Medical Council (GMC) is a public body that maintains the official register of medical practitioners within the United Kingdom. Its chief responsibility is to "protect, promote and maintain the health and safety of the public" by ...
and the
General Dental Council The General Dental Council (GDC) is an organisation which regulates dental professionals in the United Kingdom. It keeps an up-to-date register of all qualified dentists and other dental care professionals such as: dental hygienists, dental thera ...
, and a member of the Parole Board from 1990. She was Director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) from 1990 to 1992, during investigations of Barlow Clowes,
Blue Arrow Blue Arrow Limited is a United Kingdom based employment and recruitment agency that places individual jobseekers in temporary and/or permanent catering, driving industrial and office roles across the hospitality, manufacturing, public service, ...
,
Robert Maxwell Ian Robert Maxwell (born Ján Ludvík Hyman Binyamin Hoch; 10 June 1923 – 5 November 1991) was a Czechoslovak-born British media proprietor, Parliament of the United Kingdom, member of parliament (MP), suspected spy, and fraudster. Early i ...
's Mirror Group, and Polly Peck. During that period, the SFO was investigating a company set up by her brother-in-law David Mills, then husband of Labour cabinet minister
Tessa Jowell Tessa Jane Helen Douglas Jowell, Baroness Jowell, (; 18 September 1947 – 12 May 2018) was a British Labour Party politician and life peer who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Dulwich and West Norwood, previously Dulwich, from ...
, in connection with bribery allegations against
Silvio Berlusconi Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; born 29 September 1936) is an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies f ...
, but declined to investigate Mills himself.David Mills: The networker
''The Independent'', 25 February 2006
David Mills was later found guilty of accepting a cash bribe from Berlusconi, but the conviction was quashed by Italy's
Supreme Court of Cassation A court of cassation is a high-instance court that exists in some judicial systems. Courts of cassation do not re-examine the facts of a case, they only interpret the relevant law. In this they are appellate courts of the highest instance. In t ...
. From 1992 to 1998 she was
Director of Public Prosecutions The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is the office or official charged with the prosecution of criminal offences in several criminal jurisdictions around the world. The title is used mainly in jurisdictions that are or have been members o ...
, the first woman to hold that position. As DPP she also served as the second head of the
Crown Prosecution Service The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is the principal public agency for conducting criminal prosecutions in England and Wales. It is headed by the Director of Public Prosecutions. The main responsibilities of the CPS are to provide legal advi ...
, with 6,000 staff considering the prosecution of 1.4 million cases each year. During her term in this office, levels of bureaucracy in the CPS were high and morale was low.Dame Barbara Mills
obituary in ''Daily Telegraph'', 29 May 2011
She worked to increase the efficiency of the CPS, and introduced
victim impact statement A victim impact statement is a written or oral statement made as part of the judicial legal process, which allows crime victims the opportunity to speak during the sentencing of the convicted person or at subsequent parole hearings. Overview One ...
s. After a report by the
West Yorkshire Police West Yorkshire Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the metropolitan county of West Yorkshire, England. It is the fourth largest territorial police force in England and Wales by number of officers. History West Yor ...
into abuses at the
West Midlands Serious Crime Squad The West Midlands Serious Crime Squad was a police unit in the English West Midlands which operated from 1974 to 1989. It was disbanded after an investigation into allegations of incompetence and abuse of power on the part of some of the squad ...
, she agreed that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute any of the officers at the squad, a decision for which she was widely criticised. She was criticised when the CPS declined to prosecute suspects for the
murder of Stephen Lawrence Stephen Lawrence (13 September 1974 – 22 April 1993) was a black British teenager from Plumstead, southeast London, who was murdered in a racially motivated attack while waiting for a bus in Well Hall Road, Eltham on the evening of 22 Apri ...
in 1993. She resigned in 1998 after she was criticised in reports by Gerald Butler and Sir
Iain Glidewell Sir Iain Glidewell PC (8 June 1924 – 8 May 2016) was a Lord Justice of Appeal and Judge of Appeal of the High Court of the Isle of Man. He was made a privy councillor in 1985. He was educated at Bromsgrove School and Worcester College, Oxf ...
for repeatedly refusing to bring prosecutions over deaths in police custody. She also ordered a 75-year embargo restriction on the Devon and Cornwall Police Investigation of failures by West Midlands Police in the Birmingham 6 scandal of 1974. On 1 June 2016 the Coroner re-opened the inquests after a 42-year adjournment a decision opposed by West Midlands Police. She was appointed as
Adjudicator An adjudicator is someone who presides, judges, and arbitrates during a formal dispute or competition. They have numerous purposes, including preliminary legal judgments, to determine applicant eligibility, or to assess contenders' performance ...
for
Inland Revenue The Inland Revenue was, until April 2005, a department of the British Government responsible for the collection of direct taxation, including income tax, national insurance contributions, capital gains tax, inheritance tax, corporation t ...
and for
HM Customs and Excise HM Customs and Excise (properly known as Her Majesty's Customs and Excise at the time of its dissolution) was a department of the British Government formed in 1909 by the merger of HM Customs and HM Excise; its primary responsibility was t ...
on 26 April 1999, a part-time role independent of those departments, dealing with complaints from members of the public who are not satisfied with how the departments dealt with their complaints. Mills retained the role as Adjudicator for
HM Revenue and Customs , patch = , patchcaption = , logo = HM Revenue & Customs.svg , logocaption = , badge = , badgecaption = , flag = , flagcaption = , image_size = , co ...
when those bodies were merged in 2005, and held this post until 2009. Mills also held a number of other public appointments. She was governor of
London Guildhall University London Guildhall University was a university in the United Kingdom from 1992 to 2002, established when the City of London Polytechnic was awarded university status. On 1 August 2002, it merged with the University of North London to form Londo ...
from 1999 and then its successor
London Metropolitan University London Metropolitan University, commonly known as London Met, is a public research university in London, England. The University of North London (formerly the Polytechnic of North London) and London Guildhall University (formerly the City ...
from 2002 to 2007, and was chair of the council of the
Women's Library The Women's Library is England's main library and museum resource on women and the women's movement, concentrating on Britain in the 19th and 20th centuries. It has an institutional history as a coherent collection dating back to the mid-1920s, ...
from 2001 to 2007. She was also a non-executive director of the
Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust The Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust (formerly the Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust) is an NHS foundation trust based in London, United Kingdom. It comprises Royal Free Hospital, Barnet Hospital, Chase Farm Hospital, as well as clinics ru ...
from 2000 to 2007. She was the chair of the
Professional Oversight Board The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) is an independent regulator in the UK and Ireland based in London Wall in the City of London, responsible for regulating auditors, accountants and actuaries, and setting the UK's Corporate Governance and ...
of the
Financial Reporting Council The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) is an independent regulator in the UK and Ireland based in London Wall in the City of London, responsible for regulating auditors, accountants and actuaries, and setting the UK's Corporate Governance and ...
from 2008 until her death. She was a trustee of
Victim Support Victim Support is an independent charity in England and Wales that provides specialist practical and emotional support to victims and witnesses of crime. Activities ;Support for victims of crime: Trained volunteers and employees offer free and ...
from 1999 to 2004.


Personal life

Mills married
John Mills Sir John Mills (born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills; 22 February 190823 April 2005) was an English actor who appeared in more than 120 films in a career spanning seven decades. He excelled on camera as an appealing British everyman who often portra ...
in July 1962, shortly after they both graduated from Oxford. They had four children, three daughters and one son. Her husband was a businessman and a leading Labour Party councillor in Camden. Her brother-in-law, David Mills, was the husband of Baroness Jowell.Dame Barbara Mills obituary
''The Guardian'' (London), 29 May 2011.


Death

Dame Barbara Mills died on 28 May 2011, aged 70, after suffering a stroke 12 days earlier. She was survived by her husband, their four children, and eight grandchildren. Her ashes are interred in
Highgate Cemetery Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East Cemeteries. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as ...
(west cemetery).


References


Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mills, Barbara 1940 births 2011 deaths Burials at Highgate Cemetery Members of the Middle Temple English barristers Directors of Public Prosecutions (England and Wales) English King's Counsel Alumni of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire Lawyers awarded knighthoods 20th-century King's Counsel 21st-century King's Counsel Place of birth missing People from Chorleywood 20th-century English lawyers