Harold Greville Hanbury (19 June 1898 at

Compton Verney House Compton Verney House () is an 18th-century country mansion at Compton Verney near Kineton in Warwickshire, England. It is located on the west side of a lake north of the B4086 about north-west of Banbury. Today, it is the site of the Compton V ...

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

– 12 March 1993 at

Pinetown Pinetown is a large area that is part of the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality, inland from Durban in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Pinetown is situated 16 km west of Durban at an elevation of 1,000 to 1,300 feet (305 to 395 m). History Pin ...

Natal NATAL or Natal may refer to: Places * Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, a city in Brazil * Natal, South Africa (disambiguation), a region in South Africa ** Natalia Republic, a former country (1839–1843) ** Colony of Natal, a former British colony ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

) was

Vinerian Professor of English Law The Vinerian Professorship of English Law, formerly Vinerian Professorship of Common Law, was established by Charles Viner who by his will, dated 29 December 1755, left about £12,000 to the Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of O ...

at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

from 1949 to 1964.

Biography

He was the only child of Basil Hanbury and his wife, Patience, née Verney, a daughter of Henry Verney, eighteenth Baron Willoughby de Broke. He was educated at

Charterhouse Charterhouse may refer to: * Charterhouse (monastery), of the Carthusian religious order Charterhouse may also refer to: Places * The Charterhouse, Coventry, a former monastery * Charterhouse School, an English public school in Surrey London ...

and took up a Classical Scholarship at

Brasenose College, Oxford Brasenose College (BNC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It began as Brasenose Hall in the 13th century, before being founded as a college in 1509. The library and chapel were added in the mi ...

, in 1915, but interrupted his studies for military service in the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

in 1916, returning to complete his degree after the end of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. In 1921 he was elected a

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

of Lincoln College, and an Honorary Fellow in 1949. In that year he was appointed

, which carried with it a Fellowship at

All Souls College All Souls College (official name: College of the Souls of All the Faithful Departed) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Unique to All Souls, all of its members automatically become fellows (i.e., full members of t ...

. He remained there until his retirement in 1964, after which he was Dean of the Law Faculty of the

University of Nigeria The University of Nigeria, commonly referred to as UNN, is a federal university located in Nsukka, Enugu State, Eastern part of Nigeria. Founded by Nnamdi Azikiwe in 1955 and formally opened on 7 October 1960, the University of Nigeria has thr ...

until 1966. He was afterwards a champion of the

Biafra Biafra, officially the Republic of Biafra, was a partially recognised secessionist state in West Africa that declared independence from Nigeria and existed from 1967 until 1970. Its territory consisted of the predominantly Igbo-populated form ...

n cause, and published in 1968 "Biafra: A Challenge to the Conscience of Britain". In 1980 Margaret, Hanbury's wife, whom he had married in 1927 (a niece of the

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...

pathologist

Georges Dreyer Georges Dreyer ForMemRS (4 July 1873 – 17 August 1934) was a Danish pathologist. Biography Dreyer was born in Shanghai, where his father was stationed as an officer with the Royal Danish Navy. In 1900 he earned his medical degree from the Unive ...

), died, and he left England to live with a god-daughter in Natal, South Africa, where he died in 1993. Hanbury was a highly regarded figure in the Oxford of his day, on account of his accessible lecturing style and affable personality, and immensely popular with his undergraduates. He was also known for his great fondness for cats, and for years was the Vice-president of the Oxford Cat Club.

Works

His publications were not numerous, but included "Modern Equity", first published in 1935, which continues to be published as Hanbury and Martin: Modern Equity having been authored for many editions by Professor Jill E. Martin (the book is now in its 21st edition, 2018, by James Glister and James Lee). Hanbury was a follower of Sir

William Holdsworth Sir William Searle Holdsworth (7 May 1871 – 2 January 1944) was an English legal historian and Vinerian Professor of English Law at Oxford University, amongst whose works is the 17-volume ''History of English Law''. Biography Holdsworth w ...

, England's leading academic lawyer between the wars, and as his literary executor collaborated in the editing and publication of the last four volumes of Holdsworth's "History of English Law" (1952–66).

Sources

* Oxford DNB * Who Was Who {{DEFAULTSORT:Hanbury, Harold Greville Alumni of Brasenose College, Oxford British Army personnel of World War I Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford Fellows of Lincoln College, Oxford People educated at Charterhouse School English legal scholars 1898 births 1993 deaths Vinerian Professors of English Law Academic staff of the University of Nigeria British expatriates in Nigeria British expatriates in South Africa