Anthony Clarke, Baron Clarke of Stone-cum-Ebony

Anthony Peter Clarke, Baron Clarke of Stone-cum-Ebony, Kt PC QC (born 13 May 1943) is one of the first eleven Supreme Court of the United Kingdom Justices, and was the first High Court Judge to be appointed directly to that court when it came into existence on 1 October 2009 without having sat as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary. He was also appointed to the Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong on 11 April 2011 as a non-permanent judge from other common law jurisdictions.^[1] He was previously Master of the Rolls and Head of Civil Justice in England and Wales.

Career

Clarke was educated at Oakham School. In 1957 the trial of suspected serial killer John Bodkin Adams first made him interested in pursuing a career in the law.^[2] He read economics and law at King's College, Cambridge, before being called, in 1965, to the Bar at Middle Temple where he specialised in commercial and maritime law. He became a Queen's Counsel in 1979, and was a Recorder sitting in both criminal and civil courts from 1985 to 1992.

Knight Bachelor breast badge

In 1993, Clarke became a High Court judge and, as is customary, was appointed a Knight Bachelor. He was allocated to the Queen's Bench Division and, in April 1993, he succeeded Mr Justice Sheen as the Admiralty Judge. He sat in the Admiralty Court, the Commercial Court and the Crown Court, trying commercial and criminal cases respectively.

Clarke was promoted to the Court of Appeal of England and Wales in 1998 and sworn of the Privy Council. Shortly thereafter, he led the Thames Safety Inquiry^[3] and in the following year the judicial inquiry into the Marchioness disaster. He was Master of the Rolls from 2005 until 2009.

On 15 April 2009, it was announced that he would be created a Life Peer,^[4] was gazetted on 29 May 2009^[5] with the title of Baron Clarke of Stone-cum-Ebony, of Stone-cum-Ebony, in the County of Kent, and took his seat as a crossbencher in the House of Lords on 1 June 2009.^[6] It was announced on 20 April 2009 that Lord Clarke was to be appointed to the Supreme Court with effect from 1 October 2009.^[7]

A member of the Shipwrights' Company, Clarke has been an Assistant since 2000 and currently serves as Prime Warden for 2014-15. He lives in Kent and London with his wife, Rosemary née Adam, whom he married in 1968, and has three children.^[8]

Styles

• Anthony Clarke, Esq. (13 May 1943–1979)
• Anthony Clarke, Esq., QC (1979–11 January 1993)
• The Hon. Mr Justice Clarke (11 January 1993–1 October 1998)
• The Rt Hon. Lord Justice Clarke (1 October 1998–3 October 2005)
• The Rt Hon. Sir Anthony Clarke MR (1 October 2005–29 May 2009)
• The Rt Hon. The Lord Clarke of Stone-cum-Ebony MR (29 May 2009–30 September 2009)
• The Rt Hon. The Lord Clarke of Stone-cum-Ebony (1 October 2009–)

List of decided cases

• Pennington v Waine
• OFT v Abbey National plc
• Autoclenz Ltd v Belcher

See also

• Judicial titles in England and Wales

Notes

External links

• The Court of Appeal (HM Courts Service)
• Senior judiciary biographies - Master of the Rolls (Judicial Communications Office)
• Debrett's People of Today
• www.parliament.uk

Supreme Court of the United Kingdom Justices President: Lord Neuberger Deputy President: Lady Hale Lord Mance Lord Kerr Lord Clarke Lord Wilson Lord Sumption Lord Reed Lord Carnwath Lord Hughes Lord Toulson Lord Hodge Chief executive Mark Ormerod Former justices Lord Saville Lord Collins Lord Rodger Lord Phillips Lord Brown Lord Dyson Lord Walker Lord Hope Judgments 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 List Location Middlesex Guildhall

Masters of the Rolls Taylor Cromwell Hales Southwell Beaumont Hare Cordell Gerard Ellesmere Kinloss Phelips Julius Caesar Digges Charles Caesar Colepeper Lenthall Grimston Churchill Trevor Jekyll Verney Fortescue Strange Clarke Sewell Kenyon Arden Grant Plumer Gifford Lyndhurst Leach Cottenham Langdale Romilly Jessel Brett Lindley Alverstone Smith Collins Cozens-Hardy Swinfen Eady Sterndale Hanworth Wright Greene Evershed Denning Donaldson Bingham Woolf Phillips Clarke Neuberger Dyson