Sir Peter Leslie Crill (1 February 1925 – 3 October 2005) was Bailiff of
Jersey
Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label= Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west France. It is the l ...
from 1986 to 1991.
Early years
Crill attended
Victoria College, Jersey
Victoria College is a Government-run, fee-paying, academically selective day schoolGerman occupation of Jersey, for the law firm Crill and Benest, where his father was a partner.
As a young man, he was one of the few people who successfully escaped from German-occupied Jersey 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 opposi ...
. With two friends he retrieved the family’s dinghy from store, hiding it while it was made seaworthy. They set out at 8.15pm at the end of the first week in November 1944, choosing a place where they knew the nearest German guard was at least away (there were some 13,000 German troops garrisoning 26,000 islanders). The danger was that if they failed to get far enough out to sea, they would simply be carried round the island by the tide and spotted at daylight. Rowing out through a heavy swell till they could safely start the engine, they soon had to stop, to go to the aid of a second boat behind them. When the engine would not restart, they put up a small sail, but lost the compass in a squall an hour later. With the sea too rough to sail, they allowed the boat to drift, feeling thoroughly seasick after years ashore. Soon after dawn, the tide began to carry them away from land. Finally, they restarted the motor and landed safely at Agon-Coutainville near Coutances.
From France, Crill crossed to England. He later wrote of the escape 'With hindsight we achieved very little except to confirm through the memorandum of the then Bailiff, Mr A.M. Coutanche, the state of the Island as regards food and heating. Coutanche had prepared a memorandum about the problems facing the Island and had handed it to the German authorities. It contained courageously a hint that if they failed to fulfil their obligations under the Geneva Convention that might be something to be levelled against them after the war'.
He read modern history at
Exeter College, Oxford
(Let Exeter Flourish)
, old_names = ''Stapeldon Hall''
, named_for = Walter de Stapledon, Bishop of Exeter
, established =
, sister_college = Emmanuel College, Cambridge
, rector = Sir Richard Trainor
...
and in 1949 was called to the bar in Jersey.Antonia Windsor, 'Sir Peter Crill', ''The Guardian'' 27 January 2006
Politics
At the age of 26, he was elected to the States of Jersey as a Deputy for St Clement from 1951 to 1958. During this period he was President of the Legislation Committee and was responsible for introducing examinations for candidates seeking to become Jersey advocates and solicitors. In 1960, he was elected as a Senator.
Career as a Crown Officer
In 1962, Crill resigned from elected office to take up the post of HM Solicitor General. He became HM Attorney General in 1969, and led the prosecution of Edward Paisnel.
He was appointed Deputy Bailiff in 1974 and then succeed Sir
Frank Ereaut
Sir Herbert Frank Cobbold Ereaut (6 May 1919 – 11 September 1998) was Bailiff (Channel Islands), Bailiff of Jersey from 1975 to 1985.
Sir Peter Crill was appointed Deputy Bailiff in 1974 and then succeeded Sir Frank Ereaut as Bailiff of Jersey i ...
as Bailiff of Jersey in January 1986. Among the trials he presided over in the Royal Court was that of the murders of Nicholas and Elizabeth Newell. As Bailiff of Jersey, he was ex officio a member of the Guernsey Court of Appeal. As a judge of that court in 1996, his comment that 'A conscientious mason will, if anything, bring to the office of
jurat
The ''jurats'' () are lay people in Guernsey and Jersey who act as judges of fact rather than law, though they preside over land conveyances and liquor licensing. In Alderney, however, the jurats are judges of both fact and law (assisted by the ...
another degree of probity that will enhance not detract from that office' was reported in the national press.
He was said to have 'enjoyed the theatricality of the part of bailiff—the elaborate costumes, the steely gaze—and was often seen as a little grandiose and distant'.Antonia Windsor, 'Sir Peter Crill', obituary in ''The Guardian'', 27 January 2006 A senior Jersey politician said 'He was always very dignified in office, a great traditionalist'. Another that 'A man who appeared to have a tough exterior, Sir Peter also had a great capacity to be hurt as he was on several occasions during his time as Bailiff'.
The Tomes affair
In the early 1990s, Crill faced one of the toughest challenges of his career in handling 'the Tomes affair', which ultimately led to the United Kingdom
Home Secretary
The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national s ...
Kenneth Clarke
Kenneth Harry Clarke, Baron Clarke of Nottingham, (born 2 July 1940), often known as Ken Clarke, is a British politician who served as Home Secretary from 1992 to 1993 and Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1993 to 1997 as well as serving as de ...
removing the Deputy Bailiff Vernon Tomes from office in 1992. Sir Peter received complaints from lawyers and the Jersey Law Society about Tomes' delays in producing reserved judgments. Prior to their appointments as Crown Officers, Crill and Tomes had been partners in the same legal practice. In 1990, the then Home Secretary
David Waddington
David Charles Waddington, Baron Waddington, (2 August 1929 – 23 February 2017) was a British politician and barrister.
A member of the Conservative Party, he served as a Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons from 1968 to 1974 a ...
gave Mr Tomes six months to clear a backlog in judgment writing and in October 1991, Kenneth Baker gave him a further three months to rectify the delays.
In March 1992, a senior home office official gave Tomes seven days to resign, prompting a delegation of Jersey politicians to travel to the Home Office to protest and a reversal of that ultimatum. In May 1992, however, Tomes was finally told he would be removed from office with effect on 1 July 1992, provoking a demonstration of 1,000 people in his support.
Tomes was reported as saying that 'Sir Peter Crill has been the sole instigator behind this. I have warned him he will have no rest while he remains in office because I am determined now to enter the States and change the constitution'. Sir Peter "called for the people of Jersey to consider the situation calmly". In 1993, Tomes successfully stood for elected office as a Senator in the States of Jersey but failed to bring about any constitutional reforms.
Social conservatism
Sir Peter's outlook was socially conservative. While serving as Bailiff, he wrote letters in a personal capacity to ''The Times'' expressing disquiet about aspects of the changing world, including the campaign to admit women members to the
Oxford and Cambridge Club
The Oxford and Cambridge Club is a traditional London club. Membership is largely restricted to those who are members of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, including men and women who have a degree from or who are current undergraduates ...
in London and proposals to give degree-awarding powers to polytechnics.
As Bailiff, Sir Peter, with the assistance of an advisory panel, exercised powers to license public entertainment in the island. He refused permission for a visiting amateur theatre group to perform Howard Brenton's play '' Christie in Love'' and required changes to the staging of a production of Shakespeare's ''
Coriolanus
''Coriolanus'' ( or ) is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1605 and 1608. The play is based on the life of the legendary Roman leader Caius Marcius Coriolanus. Shakespeare worked on it during the same yea ...
'' by the
Tricycle Theatre
The Kiln Theatre (formerly the Tricycle Theatre) is a theatre located in Kilburn, in the London Borough of Brent, England. Since 1980, the theatre has presented a wide range of plays reflecting the cultural diversity of the area, as well as ...
Company to prevent an actor's naked buttocks being visible to the audience. On several occasions, however, 'he suggested that the role of chief censor should not lie with him, but should be at taken on by the elected members of the States'.
Honours
Crill was knighted in 1987 and made KBE in 1995. In 1994, the refurbished wing of the former nurses' home in Gloucester Street, St Helier was renamed 'Peter Crill House'. In 1997, he was awarded an honorary LLD degree by the
University of Buckingham
, mottoeng = Flying on Our Own Wings
, established = 1973; as university college1983; as university
, type = Private
, endowment =
, administrative_staff = 97 academic, 103 support
, chanc ...
.
Private life
Crill married Dr Gail Dodd, a medical doctor, in 1953. They had three daughters. His pastimes included amateur dramatics, yachting and supporting Jersey's draghunt.
Following his retirement in 1995, he was active in organizations promoting the culture of Jersey, including the Société Jersiaise and the Jersey Arts Centre. A practising Christian, from 1957 he sang in St Helier Church Chior and later Trinity Church. He was received into the Catholic Church in July 1995.
His activities in latter years were curtailed by the onset of
motor neurone disease
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most commo ...
. An autobiography entitled ''A Little Brief Authority: A Memoir'' was privately published shortly after his death, causing some controversy.