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Alan Stewart Orr

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The Right Honourable
Sir Alan Stewart Orr
OBE
Portrait by Walter Bird, 1965
Lord Justice of Appeal
In office
1971–1980
Personal details
Born(1911-02-21)21 February 1911
Rochford, Essex, England
Died3 April 1991(1991-04-03) (aged 80)
Warwickshire, England
Spouse
Mariana Frances Lilian Lang
​
​
(m. 1933; died 1986)​
Children4
EducationFettes College
Alma mater
OccupationBarrister
Military service
Branch/service Royal Air Force
Years of service1940–1946
RankWing Commander
UnitVolunteer Reserve
Battles/warsSecond World War
AwardsOfficer of the Order of the British Empire (1944)
Mentioned in despatches (1946)

Sir Alan Stewart Orr, OBE (21 February 1911 – 3 April 1991) was a British barrister specialising in taxation who rose to be a High Court judge and a Lord Justice of Appeal. After 1958 he was known as Alan Orr QC, from 1965 as Mr Justice Orr, and from 1971 as Lord Justice Orr.

During the Second World War, Orr served in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, became a wing commander, and was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his wartime service.

Early life and education

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Orr was born on 21 February 1911 to William Orr and Doris Kemsley, of Great Wakering, Essex,[1] and was a grandson of the Rev. Robert Workman Orr, a United Free Church minister of Brechin.[2] He was born in Rochford, Essex, and raised in Scotland.[3] He was educated at Fettes College, then an all-boys independent boarding school in Edinburgh.[1] He studied classics at the University of Edinburgh, where he graduated undergraduate Master of Arts (MA Hons) degree in 1933, before studying jurisprudence at Balliol College, Oxford and graduating with a first class honours Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree.[1]

Military service

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During the Second World War, he served in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. On 1 June 1940, he was commissioned as an acting pilot officer on probation in the Equipment Branch for the duration of hostilities.[4] On 24 July 1940, he was regraded to pilot officer on probation.[5] He was promoted to the war substantive rank of flying officer on 1 June 1941,[6] and had his commission confirmed.[7] He was promoted to temporary flight lieutenant on 1 September 1942,[8] and to war substantive flight lieutenant on 23 October 1942.[9] In the 1944 King's Birthday Honours, Acting Wing Commander Orr was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).[10] He was promoted to war substantive squadron leader on 15 November 1944.[11] In the 1946 New Year Honours, it was published that he had been mentioned in despatches.[12] On 21 February 1956, having spent a number of years in the inactive reserves, he relinquished his commission and was allowed to retain the rank of wing commander.[13]

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After graduating from Oxford, Orr joined the Middle Temple in the City of London to train as a barrister. He was called to the English bar in July 1936.[14]

Orr was a barrister in the chambers of Sir Wintringham Stable at 2, Crown Office Row, which in the 1970s moved premises and became known as Fountain Court Chambers. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, he started to build the chambers' reputation for commercial litigation, together with Leslie Scarman QC and Melford Stevenson QC, supported by a notable clerk, Cyril Batchelor.[15] He was a member of the General Council of the Bar from 1953 to 1957. Well known as a "tax devil", Orr was raised to Queen's Counsel in 1958,[3] and the same year was appointed as Recorder of New Windsor, a part-time judicial role.[16]

By 1962, he had become head of his chambers.[17] In April 1963, he was the Guest of Honour at the annual dinner of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland.[18] In August 1964 he became a deputy chairman of the Oxfordshire Quarter Sessions.[19]

In 1965 Orr was appointed as a High Court judge, joining the Probate, Divorce, and Admiralty Division, which was unusual, as he had only rarely appeared in it as a counsel.[3] On 12 November 1965, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace.[20] In 1967 he was elected as a Master of the Bench of the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple.[21]

On 20 April 1971, together with Sir John Stephenson, Orr was appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal. On the same day, Sir John Passmore Widgery was created Lord Widgery and became Lord Chief Justice.[22] Judge Alfred Hollings QC was appointed to replace Orr in the Probate, Divorce, and Admiralty Division of the High Court,[23] and Orr was also named as a member of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom.[24]

Orr retired as a Lord Justice in 1980,[3] shortly after a less senior man, Geoffrey Lane, had been chosen by the Lord Chancellor, Lord Hailsham, to succeed Widgery as Lord Chief Justice.

When he died in 1991, The Times said in its obituary:

"Alan Orr was a quiet unassuming judge of exceptional quality. His career reminds us that good judges do not need, and are often better without, a charismatic public personality. In court he listened, he perceived truth with a quick and accurate mind and he knew the law: the result was findings of fact based on a detailed and perceptive understanding of the evidence, with the law applied accurately and lucidly. Not many appeals against an Orr judgement succeeded. Few outside the legal profession and the business community knew of him: he did justice consistently – and that is not news."[3]

Notable cases

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In 1963 and 1964, Orr represented George Wigg, a Labour member of parliament, in a High Court action for libel against Angus Maude, a Conservative member. He won the case, and substantial damages were awarded.[25]

In October 1966, the spy George Blake escaped from HM Prison Wormwood Scrubs and fled from Great Britain to the Soviet Union, and a month later his wife, with whom he had three children, began divorce proceedings against him. In the High Court of Justice in March 1967, Orr granted her a decree nisi in Blake's absence, on the grounds that the conviction of a spouse for treason can amount to cruelty or constructive desertion, and also awarded the custody of the couple's three sons to Mrs Blake.[26]

On 17 December 1968, Orr granted the actress Britt Ekland a decree nisi for divorce on the grounds of cruelty by Peter Sellers, who did not contest the proceedings.[27]

Private life

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In 1933, Orr married Mariana Frances Lilian, a daughter of Captain J. C. Lang, King's Own Scottish Borderers. In 1973 they were reported to be living at Highfield, Harmer Green, Welwyn, Hertfordshire.[24] They had four sons James, Gavin, Mark, and Giles, and Lady Orr died in February 1986.[28]

Orr was a member of the Oxford and Cambridge Club.[24] He died on 3 April 1991 at Kineton Manor Nursing Home, Kineton, Warwickshire.[29]

Portraits of Orr by Walter Bird and Rex Coleman of Baron Studios are in the National Portrait Gallery.[30]

Notes

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  1. ^ a b c "Orr, Rt Hon. Sir Alan (Stewart) in Who Was Who online edition, December 2007, https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U174615 (subscription site)
  2. ^ "Called to the Bar", in Brechin Advertiser dated 7 July 1936, p. 5
  3. ^ a b c d e "Alan Stewart Orr" in David Heaton, John Higgins, eds., The Times Obituaries, Lives Remembered (Blewbury Press, 1991), p. 87
  4. ^ "No. 34881". The London Gazette. 25 June 1940. pp. 3870–3871.
  5. ^ "No. 34964". The London Gazette. 8 October 1940. p. 5911.
  6. ^ "No. 35235". The London Gazette. 1 August 1941. p. 4455.
  7. ^ "No. 35254". The London Gazette. 22 August 1941. p. 4880.
  8. ^ "No. 35725". The London Gazette (Supplement). 29 September 1942. p. 4266.
  9. ^ "No. 35809". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 December 1942. p. 5286.
  10. ^ "No. 36544". The London Gazette (Supplement). 2 June 1944. p. 2583.
  11. ^ "No. 36898". The London Gazette (Supplement). 16 January 1945. p. 465.
  12. ^ "No. 37407". The London Gazette (Supplement). 28 December 1945. pp. 88–91.
  13. ^ "No. 40750". The London Gazette (Supplement). 6 April 1956. p. 2091.
  14. ^ University of Edinburgh Journal, Volume 8 (1937), p. 154: "...by the Middle Temple, Alan Stewart Orr, M.A. Edin. 1933... Mr Alan Stewart Orr is a holder of a Certificate of Honour awarded at the Trinity examination, 1936."
  15. ^ History at fountaincourt.co.uk. Retrieved 8 March 2019
  16. ^ "NEW RECORDER OF WINDSOR" in Reading Mercury dated 16 August 1958, p. 9: "Mr. Alan Stewart Orr, 46-years-old barrister, has been appointed by the Queen as the new Recorder of Windsor in place of Mr. J. C. D. Harington. Mr. Orr is at present on holiday touring Scotland with his wife and three sons..."
  17. ^ John Gray, "Lives remembered: Lord Bingham of Cornhill" in The Times dated 1 October 2010. Retrieved 9 March 2019
  18. ^ The Accountant's Magazine, January 1963 issue, in vol. 67 (Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, 1963), p. 906
  19. ^ "POST FOR Q.C.s" in Birmingham Daily Post dated 20 August 1964, p. 14
  20. ^ The London Gazette issue 43816 dated 16 November 1965, p. 10663
  21. ^ The New Law Journal, vol. 116, Part 1 (1967), p. 57
  22. ^ The London Gazette issue 45348 dated 22 April 1971, p. 3995
  23. ^ Law Notes, vol. 90 (1971), p. 114
  24. ^ a b c Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage, and Companionage (Kelly's Directories, 1973), p. 1238
  25. ^ "Mr. George Wigg, Socialist M.P. for Dudley, is to receive substantial damages for libel from Mr. Angus Maude", in Birmingham Daily Post dated 16 January 1964, p. 18
  26. ^ Roger Hermiston, The Greatest Traitor: The Secret Lives of Agent George Blake (Aurum Press, 2013), p. 237
  27. ^ "Actor Peter Sellers Regretted That His Marriage To Britt Ekland Had Broken Down A Divorce Court Judge Was Told Today", Associated Newspapers news release dated 17 December 1968
  28. ^ "Lady Mariana Frances Lilian (Molly), beloved wife of the Rt Hon Sir Alan Orr", Notice of funeral on 20 February 1986 in The Times dated 17 February 1986
  29. ^ "ORR, the right honourable Alan Stewart", in Probate Index for 1991 at probatesearch.service.gov.uk. Retrieved 8 March 2019
  30. ^ Sir Alan Stewart Orr by Walter Bird and Sir Alan Stewart Orr by Rex Coleman at npg.org.uk/collections/. Retrieved 22 March 2019
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