Portal:Singapore/Selected biography/3

Reginald Hugh Hickling (2 August 1920 – 11 February 2007), who generally went by the name Hugh Hickling, was a British lawyer, colonial civil servant, law academic and author. Educated at the University of Nottingham, Hickling joined the Colonial Legal Service and served in a variety of appointments. One of these was the Commissioner of Law Revision of Malaysia, in which capacity he drafted the Internal Security Act 1960 providing for the detention of persons without trial for, among other things, acting in any manner prejudicial to the security of Malaysia. Hickling later said that he did not expect the law to be used against political opponents or those dedicated to non-violent activities; however, he stopped short of calling for its repeal. After retiring as a civil servant, Hickling became a law academic, taking up teaching positions in Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and the United Kingdom, and writing books and law journal articles. Throughout his career he also authored novels and short stories.

The son of Frederick Hickling, a police inspector, and his wife Elsie,of Malvern, Worcestershire, England, Hickling was born on 2 August 1920 in Derby, Derbyshire, in the East Midlands, and was educated at Buxton College. He applied to study at the University of Oxford, but was unsuccessful at his interview when he shocked his examiner by rating the poetry of A. E. Housman over that of William Wordsworth.