20 Facts About Hugh Hickling

Reginald Hugh Hickling, CMG, QC, known as Hugh Hickling, was a British lawyer, civil servant, law academic, and author, and author of the controversial Internal Security Act of colonial Malaysia.

In 1955, Hugh Hickling was posted to Malaya, where he gained prominence as a lawmaker.

Hugh Hickling drafted the Constitution of Malaysia, and as Commissioner of Law Revision wrote the Internal Security Act of 1960, which provided for the detention of persons without trial.

The ISA was later used to suppress political opponents or those dedicated to non-violent activities, which Hugh Hickling later said was not his intention.

In 1972, Hugh Hickling retired from the civil service, and subsequently lectured in law in Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, and the United Kingdom.

Hugh Hickling later wrote many books and law journal articles, and wrote novels and short stories throughout his career.

Hugh Hickling was the son of Frederick Hugh Hickling, a police inspector, and his wife Elsie, of Malvern, Worcestershire.

Hugh Hickling was born on 2 August 1920 in Derby, and educated at Buxton College.

Between 1941 and 1946 Hugh Hickling served as an ordinary seaman in World War II with the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve on board HMS La Malouine, a 29-metre French corvette taken over by the British.

Hugh Hickling married Beryl Dennett in 1945, and the following year he resumed his legal career as deputy solicitor with the Evening Standard in London.

Hugh Hickling joined the Colonial Legal Service, and in 1950 was posted to Sarawak, then a British colony, as assistant attorney general and, as he put it, "cheerfully assisted in the dissolution of Empire".

Immediately thereafter, Hugh Hickling was transferred to Malaya as its first parliamentary draftsman, and in that capacity he helped to prepare the Malayan constitution for that country's independence from Britain in 1957.

Hugh Hickling later served with the Commonwealth Office in 1964, and as legal adviser to the High Commissioner in Aden and the Federation of South Arabia between 1964 and 1967.

Hugh Hickling was Maritime Law Adviser in Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and the Yemen Arab Republic.

Hugh Hickling was a lecturer at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London from 1976 to 1978 and from 1981 to 1982 where he taught Southeast Asian law, and a visiting lecturer at the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law from 1974 to 1976 and again from 1978 to 1980.

Hugh Hickling was adjunct Professor of Southeast Asian Law at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia in Bangi, Selangor, for six years.

Hugh Hickling authored books and law journal articles, particularly about public law in Malaysia and Singapore; some of the latter were collected into two works, Essays in Malaysian Law and Essays in Singapore Law.

Until 2006, Hugh Hickling continued travelling to the Far East and Australia, delivering lectures, reviewing examination papers and visiting friends, colleagues and students.

Hugh Hickling was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1968 and a Queen's Counsel in 1970.

Hugh Hickling died after a short illness on 11 February 2007 in St Richard's Hospice, Malvern, survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter, and 12 grandchildren.