43 Facts About Thomas Bingham

Thomas Bingham was described as the greatest lawyer of his generation.

Thomas Bingham's father was born in Belfast, a kinsman of the Earls of Lucan; his mother was from California before being raised on the Isle of Man.

Thomas Bingham was educated at The Hawthorns prep school at Bletchingley, Surrey, where he was Head Boy, and then from 1947 the Cumbrian public school Sedbergh School, where he was described as the "brightest boy in 100 years".

Thomas Bingham enjoyed history, took up fell-walking, and developed a strong attachment to the Church of England; he was a Head of House and a School Prefect.

Thomas Bingham won an open scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford, first undertaking National Service from 1952 to 1954, as a second lieutenant in the Royal Ulster Rifles serving in Hong Kong.

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Thomas Bingham enjoyed his time in the Army and considered pursuing a military career before opting to serve in the Territorial Army for the next five years.

Thomas Bingham went up to Oxford in 1954 and initially read Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, but after two terms switched to History.

Thomas Bingham was awarded one of the first Coolidge Pathfinder Awards and spent the summer of 1955 in the US.

Thomas Bingham entered Gray's Inn during his second year at Oxford, with a view to becoming a barrister.

Thomas Bingham was elected President of Balliol Junior Common Room in his third year.

Thomas Bingham won the Gibbs Prize for Modern History in 1957 and was awarded first-class honours in finals.

Thomas Bingham tried, unsuccessfully, for fellowship by examination at All Souls College.

Thomas Bingham was called to the Bar by Gray's Inn, and was a pupil barrister under Judge Owen Stable QC in the chambers of Leslie Scarman at 2 Crown Office Row, which later moved to Fountain Court Chambers: within a few months, he was invited to become a tenant at the chambers.

Thomas Bingham took silk in 1972, becoming Queen's Counsel aged just 38 and the youngest that year, having served as Standing Counsel at the Department of Employment for four years from 1968.

Thomas Bingham was Counsel to the judicial inquiry into an explosion at a chemical plant at Flixborough in 1974 which killed 28 people.

Thomas Bingham was appointed a Recorder in 1975, and became a Bencher of Gray's Inn in 1978.

Thomas Bingham was promoted High Court Judge of the Queen's Bench Division in April 1980, aged 46, and assigned to the Commercial Court, receiving the customary knighthood.

Thomas Bingham was further promoted to the Court of Appeal in 1986, joining the Privy Council.

Thomas Bingham succeeded Lord Donaldson as Master of the Rolls in 1992 and initiated significant reforms, including a move towards the replacement of certain oral hearings in major civil law cases.

Thomas Bingham was one of the first senior judges to give public support to incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights into English law, which ultimately came about with the passing of the Human Rights Act 1998.

Thomas Bingham was appointed Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales in 1996, following Lord Taylor.

Thomas Bingham was created a Life Peer as Baron Bingham of Cornhill, of Boughrood in the County of Powys, on 4 June 1996,.

Thomas Bingham continued as Lord Chief Justice until 2000 when he was appointed Senior Law Lord.

Thomas Bingham was followed in the office of Lord Chief Justice by Lord Woolf, who had succeeded him as Master of the Rolls in 1996.

Thomas Bingham was a strong advocate of divorcing the judicial branch of the House of Lords from its legislative functions by setting up a new Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, which was accomplished under the Constitutional Reform Act 2005.

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Thomas Bingham is understood to have been "very sorry" not to serve as its inaugural president.

Thomas Bingham was one of two Law Lords to dissent from the decision to overturn the High Court and Court of Appeal decisions to quash an Order-in-Council, dismissing all impediments to the rights of the Chagos Islanders to return home.

Thomas Bingham presided over various decisions of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council upholding the finding that death penalties in Belize, St Lucia, St Kitts and the Bahamas were unconstitutional.

Thomas Bingham was awarded the degree of Doctor of Civil Law honoris causa by the University of Oxford in 1994.

From 2001 to 2008, Thomas Bingham held the office of High Steward of the University of Oxford, its second-highest office in the academic hierarchy, and in 2003 he came second to Chris Patten in the election for Chancellor.

Thomas Bingham served as the Visitor of Balliol College, Oxford, from 1986 to 2010.

Thomas Bingham served on the Advisory Council on Public Records, the Magna Carta Trust, and the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts.

Thomas Bingham was a Trustee of the Pilgrim Trust for 15 years and an Honorary Fellow of the British Academy from 2003.

Thomas Bingham served as president and chairman of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, which established in 2010 the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law in his honour.

On 16 November 2006, Thomas Bingham delivered the sixth annual Sir David Williams Lecture, hosted by the Centre for Public Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Cambridge; this lecture was entitled "The Rule of Law".

On 17 January 2008, Thomas Bingham presented the annual Hansard Lecture at the University of Southampton.

On 14 March 2008, Thomas Bingham received the degree of Doctor of Jurisprudence honoris causa from the University of Rome III, after delivering the Lectio Magistralis at the Faculty of Law entitled "The Rule of Law".

In 2009, Thomas Bingham became involved with Reprieve, a UK Charity, as well as delivering the fourth annual Jan Grodecki Lecture at the University of Leicester, entitled The House of Lords: Its Future.

On 17 November 2008, in his first major speech since retiring as Senior Law Lord, Thomas Bingham, addressing the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, disputed the legality of the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States, the United Kingdom and other countries.

Thomas Bingham said that the invasion and occupation of Iraq was "a serious violation of international law", and he accused Britain and the US of acting like a "world vigilante".

In June 2009, Thomas Bingham was interviewed by the British legal journalist Joshua Rozenberg on the subject of the rule of law in international affairs, an event arranged to raise awareness of the Thomas Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law.

Thomas Bingham gave another interview concerning the rule of law and matters pertaining to the "British Constitution" with the charity, the Constitution Society.

In 2010, shortly before Thomas Bingham died, the British Institute of International and Comparative Law established The Thomas Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law, a body solely dedicated to the promotion and enhancement of the rule of law worldwide.