
Robert Michael Oldfield Havers, Baron Havers, (10 March 1923 – 1 April 1992), was a British barrister and
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...
politician. He was knighted in 1972 and appointed a life peer in 1987.
Early life and military service
Havers was born in
North Sheen
North Sheen is an area of London, England in the former Municipal Borough of Richmond (Surrey).North Sheen was one of six wards in the Municipal Borough of Richmond (Surrey). It was incorporated into Kew in 1965 when the London Borough of Richmo ...
in 1923, the second son of High Court judge
Sir Cecil Havers and Enid Flo Havers, ''née'' Snelling.
He was the brother of
Baroness Butler-Sloss
Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knight, ...
(born 1933) who in 1988 became the first woman named to the
Court of Appeal
An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to Hearing (law), hear a Legal case, case upon appeal from a trial court or other ...
and later President of the
Family Division
The High Court of Justice in London, known properly as His Majesty's High Court of Justice in England, together with the Court of Appeal (England and Wales), Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, are the Courts of England and Wales, Senior Cour ...
.
He was educated at
Westminster School
Westminster School is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in Westminster, London, England, in the precincts of Westminster Abbey. It descends from a charity school founded by Westminster Benedictines before the Norman Conquest, as do ...
, before joining the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
in 1941 during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. He served as a 19-year-old midshipman on
HMS ''Sirius'' attached to Force Q in the Mediterranean. On 10 September 1943, he was promoted from temporary
acting sub-lieutenant to temporary
sub-lieutenant.
Following the end of the war, he transferred to the permanent
Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve
The Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) is one of the two volunteer reserve forces of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. Together with the Royal Marines Reserve, they form the Maritime Reserve. The present RNR was formed by merging the original ...
during April 1947 in the rank of
lieutenant
A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...
seniority from 1 August 1945.
After demobilization, he matriculated at
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
Corpus Christi College (full name: "The College of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary", often shortened to "Corpus") is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. From the late 14th c ...
, in 1946, where he read law.
Legal career
Havers was called to the bar in 1948 and undertook his
pupillage
A pupillage, in England and Wales, Northern Ireland, Kenya, Malaysia, Pakistan and Hong Kong, is the final, vocational stage of training for those wishing to become practising barristers. Pupillage is similar to an apprenticeship, during which ba ...
in the chambers of
Fred Lawton, as the pupil of
Gerald Howard. Havers was made a
Queen's Counsel
A King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) is a senior lawyer appointed by the monarch (or their Viceroy, viceregal representative) of some Commonwealth realms as a "Counsel learned in the law". When the reigning monarc ...
in 1964. He was the
Recorder of
Dover
Dover ( ) is a town and major ferry port in Kent, southeast England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies southeast of Canterbury and east of Maidstone. ...
from 1962 to 1968 and Recorder of
Norwich
Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...
from 1968 to 1971.
He was elected a bencher of the Inner Temple in 1971.
Political career
Havers was elected to the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...
representing
Wimbledon
Wimbledon most often refers to:
* Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London
* Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships
Wimbledon may also refer to:
Places London
* W ...
in 1970, a seat he held until 1987. He served as
Solicitor General
A solicitor general is a government official who serves as the chief representative of the government in courtroom proceedings. In systems based on the English common law that have an attorney general or equivalent position, the solicitor general ...
under
Edward Heath
Sir Edward Richard George Heath (9 July 1916 – 17 July 2005) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1965 ...
from 1972 to 1974. He became a member of the
Privy Council in 1977. He served as
Attorney-General for England and Wales
His Majesty's Attorney General for England and Wales is the chief legal adviser to the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, sovereign and Government of the United Kingdom, Government in affairs pertaining to England and Wales as well as the highest ...
and
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...
from 1979 to 1987 under
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013), was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of th ...
; his was the longest unbroken tenure of the office since the eighteenth century. During the
Falklands War
The Falklands War () was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British Overseas Territories, British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and Falkland Islands Dependenci ...
, Havers was included in Thatcher's
War Cabinet, to which he provided advice on international law and rules of engagement.
In June 1987 he was appointed
Lord Chancellor
The Lord Chancellor, formally titled Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom. The lord chancellor is the minister of justice for England and Wales and the highest-ra ...
and consequently became 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. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. With the exception of the D ...
as Baron Havers, of
St Edmundsbury in the County of Suffolk, the last to be ennobled upon appointment. However, he was forced to resign that October, due to ill health.
[
]
Controversy
Yorkshire Ripper trial
In May 1981, at the beginning of the trial of Peter Sutcliffe
Peter William Sutcliffe (2 June 1946 – 13 November 2020), also known as Peter Coonan, was an English serial killer who was convicted of murdering thirteen women and attempting to murder seven others between 1975 and 1980. He was du ...
, the Yorkshire Ripper, Sutcliffe pleaded not guilty to 13 counts of murder, but guilty to manslaughter
Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th ce ...
on the grounds of diminished responsibility
In criminal law, diminished responsibility (or diminished capacity) is a potential defense by excuse by which defendants argue that although they broke the law, they should not be held fully criminally liable for doing so, as their mental funct ...
. The basis of this defence was his claim that he was the tool of God's will. Sutcliffe first claimed to have heard voices while working as a gravedigger, that ultimately ordered him to kill prostitutes. He said the voices originated from a headstone of a deceased Polish man, Bronislaw Zapolski, and that the voice was that of God.
He also pleaded guilty to seven counts of attempted murder
Attempted murder is a crime of attempt in various jurisdictions.
Canada
Section 239 of the ''Criminal Code'' makes attempted murder punishable by a maximum of life imprisonment. If a gun is used, the minimum sentence is four, five or seve ...
. The prosecution intended to accept Sutcliffe's plea after four psychiatrists diagnosed him with paranoid schizophrenia
Schizophrenia () is a mental disorder characterized variously by hallucinations (typically, hearing voices), delusions, disorganized thinking and behavior, and flat or inappropriate affect. Symptoms develop gradually and typically begin ...
. However, the trial judge, Mr Justice Boreham, demanded an unusually detailed explanation of the prosecution reasoning. After a two-hour submission by Havers, the Attorney-General, a 90-minute lunch break and a further 40 minutes of legal discussion, Justice Boreham rejected the diminished responsibility plea and the expert testimonies of the four psychiatrists, insisting that the case should be dealt with by a jury. The trial proper was set to commence on 5 May 1981.
Havers drew controversy at the outset of the trial, when he said of Sutcliffe's victims in his introductory speech: "Some were prostitutes, but perhaps the saddest part of the case is that some were not. The last six attacks were on totally respectable women." In response to this remark, the English Collective of Prostitutes accused Havers of "condoning the murder of prostitutes", and women demonstrated outside the Old Bailey
The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly referred to as the Old Bailey after the street on which it stands, is a criminal court building in central London, one of several that house the Crown Court of England and Wales. The s ...
with placards in protest.
The trial lasted a fortnight and, despite the efforts of his counsel James Chadwin, QC, Sutcliffe was found guilty of murder on all counts and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Role in the Guildford Four and Maguire family miscarriages of justice
Havers represented the Crown
The Crown is a political concept used in Commonwealth realms. Depending on the context used, it generally refers to the entirety of the State (polity), state (or in federal realms, the relevant level of government in that state), the executive ...
in two high-profile Troubles-related miscarriages of justice in British judicial history: the trial and appeal of the Guildford Four
The Guildford Four and Maguire Seven were two groups of people, mostly Northern Irish, who were wrongly convicted in English courts in 1975 and 1976 of the Guildford pub bombings of 5 October 1974 and the Woolwich pub bombing of 7 November 1974 ...
and also of the Maguire family (known as the Maguire Seven
The Guildford Four and Maguire Seven were two groups of people, mostly Northern Irish, who were wrongly convicted in English courts in 1975 and 1976 of the Guildford pub bombings of 5 October 1974 and the Woolwich pub bombing of 7 November 1974. ...
), all of whom were wrongfully convicted. Collectively, they served a total of 113 years in prison. One of the Maguire Seven, Giuseppe Conlon, died in prison, convicted on the basis of discredited forensic evidence.
In the case of the Guildford Four, the Director of Public Prosecutions was found to have suppressed alibi evidence that supported Gerry Conlon and Paul Hill's claims of innocence. The Director of Public Prosecutions, for whom Havers was acting, was also found to have suppressed confessions by Provisional IRA bombers, known as the Balcombe Street Gang, claiming responsibility for the Guildford and Woolwich bombings.
In his submission to Sir John May's Inquiry into the Guildford and Woolwich bombings in 1989, Labour MP Chris Mullin
Christopher Paul Mullin (born July 30, 1963) is an American former professional basketball player, executive and coach. He is a five time NBA All-Star and four time All-NBA Team member. He is also two-time Olympic Gold medalist and a two-time ...
cast doubt on Havers's integrity in the matter:
Sir Michael Havers represented the Crown at the trials of the Guildford Four, Mrs. Maguire and her family and at the re-trial/appeal of the Guildford Four. He is, therefore, probably the person who can lay claim to the most detailed knowledge of this affair. I respectfully submit that any inquiry that passed without the benefit of his experience would be deficient....
The only hope of sustaining the original convictions was to rewrite the script from top to bottom. This Sir Michael and his colleagues proceeded to do with ingenuity and relish.
Personal life
Havers married Carol Elizabeth Lay in 1949, with whom he had two sons: Philip Havers, who became a Queen's Counsel like his father, and the actor Nigel Havers
Nigel Allan Havers (born 6 November 1951) is an English actor and presenter. His film roles include Lord Andrew Lindsay in the 1981 British film ''Chariots of Fire'', which earned him a BAFTA nomination; as Dr. Rawlins in the 1987 Steven Spielb ...
.["Obituary: Lord Havers." ''The Times'', London, 3 April 1992, p. 19.] Havers was a member of the Garrick Club
The Garrick Club is a private members' club in London, founded in 1831 as a club for "actors and men of refinement to meet on equal terms". It is one of the oldest members' clubs in the world. Its 1,500 members include many actors, writers, ...
,[ primarily for barristers, judges and actors.
The house at Gothic Lodge, Woodhayes Road, ]Wimbledon
Wimbledon most often refers to:
* Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London
* Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships
Wimbledon may also refer to:
Places London
* W ...
, where Sir Michael and Lady Havers had an apartment, was bombed by the Provisional IRA
The Provisional Irish Republican Army (Provisional IRA), officially known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA; ) and informally known as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary force that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland ...
on 13 November 1981; Havers and his family were in Spain at the time of the attack.["Attorney General latest target" Times ondon14 November 1981: The Times Digital Archive, 12 November 2014] A police constable standing guard outside the house was taken to hospital suffering from shock.[ A master at ]King's College School
King's College School, also known as Wimbledon, KCS, King's and KCS Wimbledon, is a Private schools in the United Kingdom, private Public school (United Kingdom), public school in Wimbledon, London, Wimbledon, southwest London, England. The s ...
, Frank Miles, was in bed in his apartment in the same house, and was unhurt because he had left his sitting room. When discovered, Miles was described as 'like Lear in the storm scene'; he took a bottle of champagne into school the next day, to celebrate his deliverance with his pupils.
Havers had two heart bypass operations in the 1980s.[ On 1 April 1992, he died from heart failure at ]St Bartholomew's Hospital
St Bartholomew's Hospital, commonly known as Barts, is a teaching hospital located in the City of London. It was founded in 1123 by Rahere, and is currently run by Barts Health NHS Trust.
History
Early history
Barts was founded in 1123 by ...
in London at the age of 69, after falling ill while working in his office.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Havers, Michael
1923 births
1992 deaths
20th-century English lawyers
20th-century King's Counsel
Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
Attorneys general for England and Wales
Attorneys general for Northern Ireland
Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
Conservative Party (UK) life peers
Deaths from congestive heart failure in the United Kingdom
English King's Counsel
English barristers
Michael
Michael may refer to:
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People from Wimbledon, London
Peter Sutcliffe
Provisional Irish Republican Army actions in England
Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve personnel of World War II
Royal Navy officers of World War II
Solicitors general for England and Wales
UK MPs 1970–1974
UK MPs 1974
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UK MPs 1979–1983
UK MPs 1983–1987