Terence Rowland Frazer Skemp, CB, QC (14 February 1915 – 15 March 1996) was a British lawyer and parliamentary draftsman.

Early life, education and war service

Born in 1915 in British India, Skemp's father, Frank Whittingham Skemp, was a judge."Terence Skemp", ''The Times'', 28 March 1996, p. 23."Skemp, Terence Rowland Frazer"
''Who Was Who'' (online edition, Oxford University Press, December 2007). Retrieved 25 January 2019. After attending

Charterhouse School (God having given, I gave) , established = , closed = , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , president ...

, he went up to

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniqu ...

, where he read law, was jointly awarded the Boulter Exhibition in Law in 1935, and then graduated with second-class honours in 1936. After being rejected for a job in the Indian Civil Service, he decided to take up a career in law. 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 ...

at Gray's Inn in 1938,"Inns of Court", ''The Times'', 12 May 1938, p. 9. and carried out pupillages in the chambers of Sir John Foster. At the outbreak of the Second World War, he enlisted with the Royal Armoured Corps and was commissioned as an officer; he suffered a severe leg wound in 1945 which ended his war service.

Career, later life and honours

The

post-war Labour government Clement Attlee was invited by King George VI to form the Attlee ministry in the United Kingdom in July 1945, succeeding Winston Churchill as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The Labour Party had won a landslide victory at the 1945 gene ...

's legislative programme was enabled by expanding the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel, which drafted bills. Skemp was recruited by the OPC in 1946, and promotions followed to Deputy Parliamentary Counsel in 1963, then Parliamentary Counsel the next year. In 1973, he was appointed Second Parliamentary Counsel, serving until retirement in 1980. For the first three years, he held the office jointly with Henry Rowe (later Sir Henry), who went on to be First Parliamentary Counsel (Skemp had been considered for the role, but the decision to advance Rowe was due partly to Skemp's heart condition). After leaving the OPC in 1980, he then spent five years as

Counsel to the Speaker A counsel or a counsellor at law is a person who gives advice and deals with various issues, particularly in legal matters. It is a title often used interchangeably with the title of ''lawyer''. The word ''counsel'' can also mean advice given ...

. Skemp drafted a number of important Acts of Parliament, including the

Firearms Act 1965 A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see Legal definitions). The first firearms originated in 10th-century China, when bamboo tubes c ...

, the

Docks and Harbours Act 1966 A dock (from Dutch ''dok'') is the area of water between or next to one or a group of human-made structures that are involved in the handling of boats or ships (usually on or near a shore) or such structures themselves. The exact meaning v ...

, the Criminal Justice Act 1967, the Race Relations Act 1968, the

Trade Union and Labour Relations Act 1974 The Trade Union and Labour Relations Act 1974 ("TULRA") was a UK Act of Parliament (now repealed) on industrial relations. The Act contains rules on the functioning and legal status of trades union, the presumption that a collective agreement ...

, the

Patents Act 1977 A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

, and the

Companies Act 1980 A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of people, whether natural, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose and unite to achieve specific, declared ...

. He was also responsible for the

Local Government Act 1972 The Local Government Act 1972 (c. 70) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974. It was one of the most significant Acts of Parliament to be passed by the Heath Gov ...

, which was the longest bill presented to Parliament up to that point. Skemp was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the

1973 Birthday Honours The Queen's Birthday Honours 1973 were appointments in many of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. They were published on 2 June 1973 for ...

, and took silk in 1984. He died on 15 March 1996, aged 85, and was survived by his three children (from his marriage to Dorothy, ''née'' Pringle) and his partner Sandra, with whom he had lived for some years after separating from his wife.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Skemp, Terence 1915 births 1996 deaths Members of Gray's Inn People educated at Charterhouse School Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford Royal Armoured Corps officers Companions of the Order of the Bath 20th-century King's Counsel British Army personnel of World War II British people in colonial India English King's Counsel