Peter Taylor, Baron Taylor Of Gosforth
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Peter Murray Taylor, Baron Taylor of Gosforth, (1 May 1930 – 28 April 1997) was the Lord Chief Justice of England from 1992 until 1996.


Family

Taylor came from a
Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...
-speaking Jewish parents of Lithuanian descent, Herman Louis Taylor, a doctor, and Raie Helena Taylor (née Shockett). The original family surname was reportedly Teiger or Teicher. His father was born in
Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...
; his mother came from the rabbinical Palterovich family who had emigrated to Leeds in 1895. Taylor had a brother, Arthur, and a sister, Dorothy. By the time of his birth, the family lived in
Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle ( , Received Pronunciation, RP: ), is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is England's northernmost metropolitan borough, located o ...
. Taylor passed the 11-plus and attended the Royal Grammar School. During
World War II 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 ...
, Newcastle was subject to bombing raids and Taylor was evacuated to Penrith where he lived in a house without either running water or mains electricity.Obituary
independent.co.uk. Accessed 9 January 2024.


Early career

In 1951, Taylor won an exhibition to
Pembroke College, Cambridge Pembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college is the third-oldest college of the university and has over 700 students and fellows. It is one of the university's larger colleges, with buildings from ...
, to study law. He was also a talented pianist, continuing to play for the whole of his life. He graduated in 1953 with an upper second class degree and then read for the Bar, being called in 1954. He chose to practise on the north-eastern circuit around Newcastle and joined the chambers of Norman Harper. He conducted mainly criminal cases, often for the prosecution, and at a very early age 'took silk' to become 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 1967; he occasionally appeared for the defence. On one such occasion, judge Sir Melford Stevenson deemed him a threat to the administration of justice.


Famous cases

Taylor attracted attention from 1973 when he appeared for the prosecution in several cases connected to the corrupt architect John Poulson, including that of Poulson himself. Over the next three years, the prosecutions succeeded and many of those involved were jailed. In 1974, Taylor successfully prosecuted Judith Ward who was convicted of a series of IRA bombings (many years later, the conviction was found to have been a miscarriage of justice, mostly through Ward's delusions of her own guilt). He also prosecuted Stefan Kiszko in July 1976, in what would become one of the most notorious miscarriages of justice in British Law in the 20th Century. Taylor also took on John Ryman, a fellow Barrister and Labour Member of Parliament for
Blyth Valley Blyth Valley was a local government district with borough status in south-east Northumberland, England, bordering the North Sea and Tyne and Wear. The two principal towns were Blyth and Cramlington. Other population centres include Seaton De ...
who was found to have submitted fraudulent election expenses. The most high-profile trial in which Taylor appeared took place in 1979 and the defendant was former
Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...
leader
Jeremy Thorpe John Jeremy Thorpe (29 April 1929 – 4 December 2014) was a British politician who served as the Member of Parliament for North Devon from 1959 to 1979 and as leader of the Liberal Party from 1967 to 1976. In May 1979 he was tried at the Old ...
who was accused of conspiracy to murder. Although all involved were acquitted, most observers put this down to the summing-up of the trial judge and the malpractice of the prosecution witnesses; Taylor won praise for his handling of the case. His opening address is frequently quoted; Taylor's style of oratory was deliberately concise and straightforward but he had a talent for a punning literary allusion.


Judge

Taylor had been first appointed a recorder (part-time judge) in 1969 and served as a recorder in the Crown Court from 1972. After serving as Chairman of the Bar Council for 1979–80, he was made a full High Court judge in the Queen's Bench Division, receiving the customary
knighthood A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...
. One of his first cases saw him give
Bromley London Borough Council Bromley London Borough Council, also known as Bromley Council, is the local authority for the London Borough of Bromley in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in London. The council has been under Conservative majo ...
permission to challenge the
Greater London Council The Greater London Council (GLC) was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater London from 1965 to 1986. It replaced the earlier London County Council (LCC) which had covered a much smaller area. The GLC was dissolved in 198 ...
's "Fare's Fair" policy of lowering public transport fares. In 1983, Taylor held that a Pakistani man who had pronounced
Talaq Divorce according to Islamic law can occur in a variety of forms, some initiated by a husband and some by a wife. The main categories of Islamic customary law are ''talaq'' ( repudiation), ''khulʿ'' (mutual divorce) and ''faskh'' (dissolution o ...
and notified the authorities in Pakistan had not divorced his wife according to English law. In 1984, Taylor largely sided with
Mary Whitehouse Constance Mary Whitehouse (; 13 June 1910 – 23 November 2001) was a British teacher and conservative activist. She campaigned against social liberalism and the mainstream British media, both of which she accused of encouraging a more permis ...
who brought a case against the
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over the feature film version of '' Scum'' (1979); he said the Director-General of the IBA had made "a grave error of judgment" in allowing the film to be shown. The next year, he held that Nottinghamshire police had acted negligently in firing
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into a house knowing there would be a fire risk and not having fire engines on standby. In 1987 he stated that he did not accept that a judge could not inquire further when a minister raised a justification of 'national security' for their actions (the case concerned the
telephone tapping Wiretapping, also known as wire tapping or telephone tapping, is the monitoring of telephone and Internet-based conversations by a third party, often by covert means. The wire tap received its name because, historically, the monitoring connecti ...
of Joan Ruddock).


Court of Appeal

In 1988, Taylor was promoted 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 ...
. There he became known to the public on 17 April 1989 when he was commissioned by the government to undertake an inquiry into the
Hillsborough disaster The Hillsborough disaster was a fatal crowd crush at a football match at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, on 15 April 1989. It occurred during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in the tw ...
two days previously. The
Taylor Report The Hillsborough Stadium Disaster Inquiry report is the report of an inquiry which was overseen by Lord Justice Taylor, into the causes of the Hillsborough disaster in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, on 15 April 1989, as a result of which, ...
he produced led to the introduction of all-seater stadia at all top English football clubs, and the removal of fences around fans sitting areas. Standing accommodation was seen as a risk due to the increased chances of a "crush", and the security fences which Taylor describes as treating spectators like "prisoners of war" were also a hazard in crushes as they claimed the lives of most of the 96 people who ultimately lost their lives at Hillsborough; 94 of them died on the day of the disaster, a 95th died several days later, and the final victim died in March 1993 having never regained consciousness. Taylor's recommendations, published on 29 January 1990, stated that all First and Second Division (which became the
Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...
and Division One in 1992) stadiums had to be all-seater by August 1994, and that the rest of the
Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...
should follow suit by August 1999. However,
the Football Association The Football Association (the FA) is the Sports governing body, governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest footb ...
later ruled that the smaller clubs could retain standing accommodation provided that their stadiums met safety requirements, while clubs promoted to the upper reaches of the league would be allowed standing accommodation at their stadiums for up to three years after
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. Taylor's popularity as a former Chairman of the Bar Council and as a fair judge who could plausibly claim to have been in touch with all aspects of British life led to his being considered the favourite to take over from Lord Lane when Lane retired from the job of
Lord Chief Justice The Lord or Lady Chief Justice of England and Wales is the head of the judiciary of England and Wales and the president of the courts of England and Wales. Until 2005 the lord chief justice was the second-most senior judge of the English a ...
, a retirement which seemed all the more likely due to the criticism of Lane for his stance on a succession of miscarriages of justice. Taylor was duly appointed when Lane stepped down in 1992, at the same time being 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. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. With the exception of the D ...
as Baron Taylor of Gosforth, ''of Embleton in the County of Northumberland'' on 27 April 1992.


Lord Chief Justice

Where Lane had been extremely reticent about giving interviews, Taylor was determined to be as open as possible. Not only did he start his tenure by holding an unprecedented press conference, he appeared as a guest on
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
television's '' Question Time'' and as a castaway on ''
Desert Island Discs ''Desert Island Discs'' is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme on 29 January 1942. Each week a guest, called a " castaway" during the programme, is asked to choose eight audio recordin ...
''. Within a few months of taking over he accepted an invitation to give the annual Dimbleby Lecture on "The judiciary in the nineties" in which he cast himself as a reformer. He supported moves to stop judges wearing wigs in court. Unlike previous holders of the office, Taylor concentrated almost exclusively on appeals rather than acting as a trial judge. This was partly because a backlog had grown up but also because of the much increased concern over a series of cases going back many years which were being proved to be miscarriages of justice. Taylor differed from his immediate predecessor in considering this an immensely serious issue, and knew from his own experience of prosecuting Judith Ward and Stefan Kiszko that many more cases could come to light. This led him to strong support of the full disclosure of prosecution evidence (he also supported moves towards disclosure of defence evidence). Taylor was with the grain of public opinion in supporting stronger sentences on drunk drivers who killed, and he also extended the range of defences available to
domestic violence Domestic violence is violence that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes r ...
victims who fought back. He also extended the concept of murder to include the abortion of unborn children in their mother's womb. Due to his unusual openness, his view was often heard on matters of political controversy: he could live with the change to allow juries to draw adverse inferences from a defendant's silence when interviewed, but opposed moves restricting the right of an accused to elect trial by jury. Taylor was profoundly affected by the death of his wife Irene in 1995. Shortly afterwards he was diagnosed with a brain tumour. The last appeal he heard was that of Rosemary West, which he turned down. He stepped down in 1996, although did not go quietly: in a series of speeches in the
House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...
over the next year he strongly attacked proposals from the then
Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, more commonly known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom and the head of the Home Office. The position is a Great Office of State, maki ...
,
Michael Howard Michael Howard, Baron Howard of Lympne (born Michael Hecht; 7 July 1941) is a British politician who was Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition (United Kingdom), Leader of the Opposi ...
, to introduce mandatory sentencing, which he said "must involve a denial of justice". Taylor had defended the traditional right of the defendant to silence, a battle ultimately lost, and criticised the delay in setting up a body to review miscarriages of justice, something recommended by the 1993 Royal Commission headed by Viscount Runciman of Doxford.


Illness and death

Peter Taylor, Baron Taylor of Gosforth, died of cancer in 1997, aged 66, at his home in
Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, England, around south-west of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The nam ...
, Surrey. He was survived by three daughters: Ruth, Deborah and Judith; and a son, Louis.


References


External links


Honour from the City of Newcastle-upon-TynePortrait of Taylor
at the
National Portrait Gallery National Portrait Gallery may refer to: * National Portrait Gallery (Australia), in Canberra * National Portrait Gallery (Sweden), in Mariefred *National Portrait Gallery (United States), in Washington, D.C. *National Portrait Gallery, London ...
, London {{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Peter, Baron Taylor of Gosforth 1930 births 1997 deaths Crossbench life peers 20th-century English judges Lord chief justices of England and Wales English Jews People from Newcastle upon Tyne Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom People educated at the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle upon Tyne Queen's Bench Division judges Knights Bachelor Life peers created by Elizabeth II Deaths from cancer in England