HOME NEWS & VIEWS MEETINGS COMMITTEE LAW REPORTS CONTACT LONDON INSTITUTE
News and Information
Obituary Her Honour Jean Graham Hall LLM
Latest Update: The Branch has received a recording made of the Service of Thanksgiving held in March for Jean Graham Hall's life. For those who knew Jean but were unable to attend the service, it gives fascinating details of her remarkable life and career. If you would like to borrow the cassette, please contact the Branch Chairman, Robin Orme."
It was with great sadness that we learned
of the death of Her Honour Jean Graham Hall, who died on the 14th March 2005,
following a number of years of ill health. She was a friend and a mentor to
many of us.
Jean had a most extensive and varied career that was based upon her unstinting service to the public at large.
She was born on the 26th March 1917, with her early education at St Anne's College, Sanderstead, London, followed by a degree course in Social Work at the London School of Economics. Having obtained a Gold Medal in Elocution and Dramatic Art, she initially concentrated upon teaching elocution and speech at various Drama Schools prior to becoming a Social Worker where she specialised in family and children law.
Jean completed a second degree, this time in Law, in 1950. She was called to the Bar at Gray's Inn and was indeed President of the Inns' Debating Society for some years, from which she progressed via the Probation Service to becoming a Stipendiary Magistrate in 1965 and Deputy Chairman of the South-East London Quarter Sessions. Subsequently she was appointed as a Circuit Judge at the Croydon Court, where she was a very firm master of proceedings and the terror of Advocates and those who were incompetent or ill prepared.
Whilst a Circuit Judge at Croydon Court she befriended Margaret Forsythe, who was a Magistrate at Croydon Court and a very active member of the new SE Branch Committee of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. Jean, appreciating that we were in dire financial need and unable to pay for lecture accommodation, arranged for the Law Courts at Croydon to be the official home for our CIArb. Branch meetings. This formed the rock upon which the South Eastern CIArb Branch was founded and was our home for many years.
Jean joined the Chartered Institute in February 1989 and was elected a Fellow in 1990. She attended the Branch Wednesday evening meetings, where her advice, guidance and steerage were readily given, accepted and very much appreciated. Not wishing to be a bystander, Jean became a member of the Branch Committee in 1997 whence she became a regular contributor to the Branch Newsletter and avidly progressed the role of women in the CIArb and also resisted the obligatory retirement age of members from the Institutes Arbitration Panels on an age basis.
Having thrown herself into the activities of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, she was a regular attendee, at not only Branch functions, but also national dinners and functions, being a person of considerable social ambience. Together with her partner Gordon Smith, a reputable Surveyor and Arbitrator himself, (who pre-deceased her by two years), she was co-author of a standard text book entitled "The Expert Witness", a volume, which was the subject of many reprints and which has become a book shelf necessity. Her other literary accomplishments included not only books concerning Family and Child Law, but also biographical studies in connection with drama.
As an individual she was known as a great and experienced humanitarian, who was not only likeable, but full of wisdom and humour. Most forthright in her desire for perfection, she was unable to tolerate incompetence or time wasting, particularly by Counsel. Indeed, it was known for her, in her days at Croydon Court, to start a Chess timer whilst addressing garrulous Counsel and saying "?I will give you three minutes to complete your Address".
Her Honour Jean Graham Hall was unique.
Dennis James
A personal note on Dennis James' obituary to Jean Graham Hall
I came across Jean first when I was a fresh-faced forty odd new member at meetings in Croydon. She had a tremendous knack of communication by which you felt like an old friend immediately you met her. Her book 'The Expert Witness' is further evidence of her ability to communicate. Although we have not seen her for a while, she will be sorely missed by many of us.
Peter Horne