Sir Frederick Maurice Drake, DFC (15 February 1923 – 6 April 2014) Sir Maurice Drake at Hailsham Chambers
Retrieved 6 May 2014 was a judge of the High Court of England and Wales who presided over several high-profile defamation cases in the 1990s including: ''Taylforth'' v ''

News Group A Usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from users in different locations using the Internet. They are discussion groups and are not devoted to publishing news. Newsgroups are technically distinct ...

'' (1994) and ''Donovan'' v ''

The Face The face is a part of the body, the front of the head. Face may also refer to: Film * ''The Magician'' (1958 film) or ''The Face'' * ''The Face'' (1996 film), an American television film * ''Face'' (1997 film), a British crime drama by Antonia ...

'' (1993).

Early life

Drake was the son of a wool merchant and was educated at

St George's School, Harpenden (Aim Higher) , established = 1907 , type = AcademyDay and boarding school , religious_affiliation = Christian , head_label = Headteacher , head = Helen Barton , r_head_label = , r_head = Stephen Warner ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

, before service in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

(RAF) during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

as a navigator, initially with 96 Squadron but soon after with 255 Squadron. Whilst with 255, Drake flew night patrols in

Bristol Beaufighter The Bristol Type 156 Beaufighter (often called the Beau) is a British multi-role aircraft developed during the Second World War by the Bristol Aeroplane Company. It was originally conceived as a heavy fighter variant of the Bristol Beaufort ...

aircraft over Africa and Italy and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross following a number of successes against enemy aircraft.

Career

Following the end of the war, Drake completed studies at Exeter College, Oxford in

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning a ...

. 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 ...

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

in 1950, joining 4 Paper Buildings (later Hailsham Chambers), in

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wal ...

. Drake later

took silk In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel ( post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of a queen, is a lawyer (usually a barrister or ...

. He was appointed a High Court Judge of the

Queen’s Bench Division The King's Bench Division (or Queen's Bench Division when the monarch is female) of the High Court of Justice deals with a wide range of common law cases and has supervisory responsibility over certain lower courts. It hears appeals on point ...

in 1978 where one of his first cases was the murder of

Carl Bridgewater The Bridgewater Four are four men who were tried and found guilty of killing 13-year-old paperboy Carl Bridgewater, who was shot in the head at close range near Stourbridge, England, in 1978. In February 1997, after almost two decades of imprisonm ...

. The conviction was overturned in 1997. As a High Court judge, Drake presided over several high-profile defamation cases in the 1990s including: ''Donovan'' v ''

'' (1993) and ''Taylforth'' v ''

'' (1994). In Gordon Angelsea v Observer, he admitted he had been a Freemason since the 1940s. In 1993, he granted an injunction to Princess Diana to prevent the publication of photographs taken without her consent whilst she was exercising. In 1991, Drake succeeded Sir Michael Davies as the judge in charge of the jury list. Following retirement in 1995, he continued to hear occasional cases. In 1996, he agreed to stand aside from a trial because he was a Freemason. He served as Treasurer of

in 1997. He also served as the Mayor of

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Drake, Maurice 1923 births 2014 deaths People educated at St George's School, Harpenden Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United Kingdom) Royal Air Force officers 20th-century English judges Queen's Bench Division judges Knights Bachelor