Henry Vivian Brandon, Baron Brandon of Oakbrook, MC, PC (3 June 1920 – 24 March 1999) was a British judge.

Early life and career

Brandon was born in Worthing,

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

, the younger son of Captain Vivian Ronald Brandon RN and of Joan Elizabeth Maud Simpson. He was educated at

Durston House Durston House School is a private preparatory school in the UK for boys aged 4–13. It is a leading west London prep school and is a noted feeder school of Merchant Taylors’, John Lyon, Hampton and St Paul's School. Day fees range from £4,3 ...

, Winchester College, and King's College, Cambridge, where he initially read Classics. His studies were interrupted by World War II. He was commissioned into the Royal Artillery and won the Military Cross for directing artillery fire behind Vichy lines in Madagascar. After the war he returned to Cambridge, graduating with a First in Law in 1946. The same year he 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 ...

by the Inner Temple in 1946. He practiced in the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division of the High Court, becoming the only man at the bar to build up a practice in all three areas. He was appointed a Queen's Counsel in 1961.

Judicial career

Brandon was appointed to the High Court in 1966, at the age of forty-six, and was assigned to the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division, where he was the sole Admiralty judge. He received the customary knighthood the same year. In 1971, the Division was reformed into the Family Division under the Administration of Justice Act 1970, and its Admiralty jurisdiction was transferred to the Queen's Bench Division. Brandon remained with the new Family Division, although he sat as an 'additional judge of the Queen's Bench Division' on secondment from the Family Division. Brandon was appointed a

Lord Justice of Appeal A Lord Justice of Appeal or Lady Justice of Appeal is a judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, the court that hears appeals from the High Court of Justice, the Crown Court and other courts and tribunals. A Lord (or Lady) Justice ...

in 1978 and sworn of the

Privy Council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

. On 24 September 1981, he was appointed a

Lord of Appeal in Ordinary Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, commonly known as Law Lords, were judges appointed under the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876 to the British House of Lords, as a committee of the House, effectively to exercise the judicial functions of the House of ...

and was created a

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages ...

with the title Baron Brandon of Oakbrook, ''of

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. ...

Greater London Greater may refer to: *Greatness, the state of being great *Greater than, in inequality (mathematics), inequality *Greater (film), ''Greater'' (film), a 2016 American film *Greater (flamingo), the oldest flamingo on record *Greater (song), "Greate ...

''. In 1991, he retired from judicial service.

Family

Brandon married Jeanette Janvrin, a private secretary, on 28 December 1955; they had three sons and a daughter. Lady Brandon died in 2018.Brandon of Oakbrook
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References

1920 births 1999 deaths Brandon of Oakbrook 20th-century English judges Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Members of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council People educated at Winchester College Recipients of the Military Cross Knights Bachelor Royal Artillery officers Alumni of King's College, Cambridge Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division judges Family Division judges Members of the Inner Temple Lords Justices of Appeal British Army personnel of World War II People from Worthing {{Life-peer-stub