Michael Hart (judge)
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Sir Michael Christopher Campbell Hart (7 May 1948 - 20 February 2007) was a British High Court judge in the Chancery Division.
Hart was born in London. He was educated at Winchester College, where he was cox of the rowing eight, and read law at Magdalen College, Oxford. He graduated with a first-class degree in 1966, and then studied for the Bachelor of Civil Law. He took a second first, winning the Vinerian Prize and Scholarship for the best exam performance.
He was a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford from 1970 until his death, with three intermissions in 1977 to 1979, 1986 to 1993 and 1995 to 2001.
He was called to the Bar at Gray's Inn in 1970, joining a Chancery chambers, practising in trust law, property law and revenue law.
He met his first wife, Melanie Sandiford, at Oxford, and they were married in 1972. They had two daughters together.
He became a QC in 1987, and served as a deputy High Court judge from 1991. He became a QC in Northern Ireland in 1994.
He was appointed a judge in the Chancery Division on 21 April 1998, receiving the customary knighthood. He was Chancery Supervising Judge for the Midland, Western, and Wales and Chester circuits from 2004 to 2006.
Outside the law and academia, he enjoyed poetry, literature and the countryside. He had a holiday home in Wales.
In 1996, he divorced his first wife, and married a second time, to Sara Jane Hargreaves, a barrister. They had a son together.
He died of lung cancer. He was survived by his second wife, their son, and two daughters from his first marriage.
