Tom Denning, Baron Denning

Denning was born on 23 January 1899 in Whitchurch, Hampshire, to Charles Denning, a draper, and his wife Clara Denning (née Thompson). He was one of six children; his older brother Reginald Denning later became a noted staff officer with the British Army, and his younger brother Norman Denning became Director of Naval Intelligence and Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff (Intelligence).[3] Denning was born two months earlier than expected and almost died at birth; he was so small and weak that he was nicknamed 'Tom Thumb' and could fit in a pint pot.[4] He was named after Alfred the Great by his sister Marjorie, and was baptised on 23 April 1899 at All Hallows Church, Whitchurch.[4]

Denning, along with his older brother Gordon, began his schooling at the National School of Whitchurch, one of many set up by the National Society for the Education of the Poor. Both boys won scholarships to Andover Grammar School, where Denning excelled academically, winning four prizes for English essays on the subjects of "The Great Authors", "Macaulay", "Carlyle" and "Milton".[5] The outbreak of the First World War saw most of the schoolmasters leave to join the British armed forces, being replaced by female teachers. At the time Denning wanted to become a mathematician, but none of the new teachers knew enough mathematics to teach him; instead, he taught himself.[6] He qualified to study at University College, Southampton, but was advised to stay at school and apply to Oxford or Cambridge in a few years. He sat the Oxbridge examination when he was sixteen and was awarded a £30 a year exhibition to study mathematics at Magdalen College, Oxford; the money was not enough to live on, but he accepted nevertheless. Although he had been accepted by a college he still needed to gain entry to the university as a whole, which meant passing exams including Greek – which had not been taught at Andover Grammar School. Denning managed to teach himself enough of the subject to pass, and matriculated to Oxford in 1916.[7]

In addition to his Magdalen Scholarship he had a scholarship from Hampshire County Council worth £50 a year.[7] After arriving he made a favourable impression on Sir Herbert Warren, the President of Magdalen College, who upgraded the exhibition to a Demyship of £80 a year and arranged for the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths to give Denning a £30 a year scholarship.[6] Despite military training in the early morning and evening, Denning worked hard at his studies, and obtained a First in Mathematical Moderations, the first half of his mathematics degree, in June 1917.[8]

Denning was told he would be ineligible to serve in the Armed Forces because of a systolic heart murmur, which he believed the doctor diagnosed because he was tired of sending young men off to die.[8] He successfully appealed against the decision, and enlisted on 14 August 1917 as a cadet in the Hampshire Regiment before being sent to the Royal Engineers Oxford University Officer Training Corps. He trained at Newark and was temporarily commissioned as a second lieutenant on 17 November 1917.[9] Although he was old enough to serve in the armed forces, regulations meant that he was not allowed to serve in France until he was nineteen.[10]

In March 1918 the German Army advanced closer to Amiens and Paris, and Denning's unit was sent to France to help stop the advance. Under continuous shell fire for three months, the company and the 38th (Welsh) Infantry Division held their section of the line, with a unit under Denning's command building a bridge to allow infantry to advance over the River Ancre.[11] Denning went two days without sleep while building these bridges; shortly after one was completed, a German aeroplane dropped a bomb on it, forcing them to start again.[11] The unit advanced over the River Ancre and the Canal du Nord, but Denning fell ill with influenza and was in hospital for the last few days of the war.[12] When writing of his experiences in World War I in The Family Story, Denning summed up his war service with characteristic pithiness in just four words: "I did my bit".[13]

Denning's oldest brother, Captain John Edward Newdigate Denning, was killed near Gueudecourt on 26 September 1916 whilst serving with the Lincolnshire Regiment.[14] His brother, Sub-Lieutenant Charles Gordon Denning, who saw action in the Battle of Jutland, died of tuberculosis on 24 May 1918 whilst serving with the Royal Navy on HMS Morris.[15] Denning would describe his dead brothers as the best of him and his siblings.[16]

Magdalen College, Oxford, where Denning studied between 1916 and 1918, 1919 and 1920 and from 1921 to 1922

Denning was demobilised on 6 February 1919,[17] and returned to Magdalen College four days later.[18] He initially thought about turning to applied mathematics, but decided on pure mathematics.[12] He studied hard, not participating in any of the university's numerous societies or clubs so that he could better focus on his work, and graduated in 1920 with a first in Mathematical Greats.[19] He was offered a job teaching mathematics at Winchester College for £350 a year, which he accepted. As well as mathematics, he taught geology, despite not having studied it; instead, he "read up on [it] the night before".[20] He found the job boring,[21] and after viewing the Assize Court at Winchester Castle decided he would like to be a barrister.[22]

On the advice of Herbert Warren, he returned to Magdalen to study Jurisprudence in October 1921. Thanks to Warren, Denning was elected to the Eldon Law Scholarship, worth £100 a year, to finance his studies; when the news of Denning's election was brought, Warren wrote "you are a marked man. Perhaps you will be a Lord of Appeal some day".[23][24] Denning took his final examinations in June 1922 and impressed the examiner, Geoffrey Cheshire, by correctly answering questions on the Law of Property Act which had been given Royal Assent only a few days before.[23]

Denning gained a high grade in all his subjects except jurisprudence, which he described as "too abstract a subject for my liking". He did not return to read for a Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) but instead attempted to gain a prize fellowship at All Souls College, Oxford; he failed to be accepted, something he put down to his poor pronunciation of Latin.[25]

Denning was admitted to Lincoln's Inn on 4 November 1921, choosing it because the Under Treasurer was a graduate of Magdalen College.[26] On the advice of his brother's friend Frank Merriman he applied to 4 Brick Court, Middle Temple Lane, a small set of chambers run by Henry O'Hagan. He was accepted and began work there in September 1922, before he had taken his final bar exam. He finished his final exam in May 1923 and came top in the bar examination, with the Inn awarding him a 100 guineas a year studentship of three years. He was called to the Bar on 13 June 1923, and was offered a tenancy by O'Hagan. His first few years were spent receiving small briefs from a variety of clients, including work prosecuting those who failed to pay rail tickets and fines.[27] During this time he also wrote a manual for the railway police giving guidance on incidents such as taxi drivers who refused to take a customer to a destination within the area specified by the Public Carriage Office (which they were legally obliged to do).[28] He wrote his first article in 1924 titled "Quantum Meruit and the Statute of Frauds" on the decision in Scott v Pattison [1923] 2 KB 723; it was accepted by the Law Quarterly Review and published in January 1925.[20]

His work steadily increased in amount and quality throughout the 1920s and '30s. By the 1930s he was making most of his court appearances in the senior courts such as the High Court of Justice; in 1932 he was advised by his clerk that he should not be seen in the county courts, and that he should leave this work for lesser members of the chambers.[29] In 1929 he helped edit several chapters of Smith's Leading Cases (13th ed.) and in 1932 acted as a supervising editor for the 9th edition of Bullen & Leake's Precedents for Pleadings in the King's Bench Division.[30] In 1932 he moved to his own set of chambers in Brick Court, and by 1936 he was earning over £3,000 a year. (Roughly £200,000 a year in 2020).[29] A notable case was L'Estrange v F Graucob Ltd [1934] 2 KB 394, where he successfully argued an exemption clause was incorporated because a contract was signed. This was counter to his work as a judge, where he tried to minimise their impact, but he said that 'If you are an advocate you want your client to win. If you are a judge you don't care who wins exactly. All you are concerned about is justice'.[31]

From 1937 until 1944 he worked as Chancellor of the Diocese of Southwark, and from 1942 to 1944 was Chancellor of the Diocese of London. He applied to become a King's Counsel on 15 January 1938. The appointments were announced on 7 April;[32] he "took silk" on 9 April and received letters of congratulation from, among others, Rayner Goddard.[33] After the start of the Second World War, Denning volunteered; he was too old for active service, and was instead appointed legal advisor to the North East Region. In 1942 he took the case of Gold v Essex County Council [1942] 2 KB 293, which changed the law to make hospitals liable for the professional negligence of their staff.[34]

In December 1943 a judge was taken ill, and Denning was asked to take his place as a Commissioner of Assize. This was regarded as a 'trial' for membership of the judiciary, and Denning was appointed Recorder of Plymouth on 17 February 1944.[35] On 6 March 1944, while arguing a case in the House of Lords, Denning was taken aside by the Lord Chancellor and told that he wanted Denning to become a judge at the High Court of Justice in the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division. Denning accepted, and the announcement was made before the conclusion of the trial.[36]

The Royal Courts of Justice, where Denning sat between 1944 and 1956 in the High Court and Court of Appeal and again from 1962 to 1982 as Master of the Rolls

Denning was officially appointed on 7 March 1944[37] with a salary of £5,000, and received the customary knighthood on 15 March 1944.[38] After becoming a judge Denning was also elected a Bencher of Lincoln's Inn, and became its Treasurer in 1964.[39] Denning had little experience with divorce law and disliked it; it was seen as an inferior type of law.[40] There were few good barristers specialising in divorce law; two other barristers were sworn into the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division along with Denning, and of the three only one had ever practised divorce law.[41] His work as a divorce judge was relatively sound; his decisions were overturned only once, in Churchman v Churchman [1945] 2 All ER 190.[42]

With the appointment of Lord Jowitt as Lord Chancellor in 1945 Denning was transferred to the King's Bench Division, where Jowitt thought his talents would be better put to use (with Hildreth Glyn-Jones QC, later a High Court judge, greeting him with the words 'welcome home').[43]

In 1946 he travelled the Western Circuit but was recalled by the Lord Chancellor to chair a committee looking at the reform of procedure in divorce cases. He continued working as a judge while chairing the daily committee. The committee was appointed on 26 June 1946 and published its first report in July, which reduced the time between decree nisi and decree absolute from 6 months to 6 weeks.[44] The second report was published in November, recommending that County Court judges should be appointed to try cases, and the final report was published in February 1947 recommending the establishment of a Marriage Welfare Service. The reports were well received by the public and led to Denning being invited in 1949 to become President of the National Marriage Guidance Council.[45]

His appointment to the King's Bench Division allowed him to hear pension appeals, and he attempted to reform the principles applied by the government minister and the Pensions Tribunals. In Starr v Ministry of Pensions [1946] 1 KB 345 he ruled that it was up to the tribunals to prove that an injury was not due to war service, reversing the previous state of affairs where a claimant would have to prove their injuries were due to war service before they would be granted a pension.[46] In James v Minister of Pensions [1947] KB 867 he also allowed for judges to approve time extensions for the claimant to gather more evidence when such extensions had been rejected by the Tribunal.[46] These two cases made a large difference to applicants, and he received praise from both the British Legion and the public.[47]

The government refused to do anything about those servicemen who had been rejected by the courts prior to Denning's judgment, which provoked public outcry under the slogan 'Fit for Service, Fit for Pension'.[48] The British Legion chose 73 cases and asked Denning to let the Legion present them while the courts were not sitting; Denning heard all 73 cases on 11 July 1946.[49]

In 1947 he decided in Central London Property Trust Ltd v High Trees House Ltd [1947] KB 130 (known as the 'High Trees' case), which was a milestone in English contract law.[50] It resurrected the principle of promissory estoppel established in Hughes v Metropolitan Railway Co (1876–77) LR 2 App Cas 439 and has been both praised and criticised by lawyers and legal theorists.[51]

As a High Court judge Denning sentenced people to death, which he said at the time "didn't worry [him] in the least". Denning maintained that for murder, death was the most appropriate penalty, and that in cases where mistakes had been made there was always an appeals system.[52] In the 1950s there was growing opposition to the use of the death penalty, and a Royal Commission was appointed to investigate abolishing it. Denning told the Commission in 1953 that "the punishment inflicted for grave crimes should adequately reflect the revulsion felt by the great majority of citizens for them".[52]

He later changed his mind about capital punishment, regarding it as unethical.[53] In 1984 he wrote "Is it right for us, as a society, to do a thing – hang a man – which none of us individually would be prepared to do or even witness? The answer is 'no, not in a civilised society'".[54]

After less than five years as a judge, Denning was appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal on 14 October 1948.[55] He was sworn in as a Privy Counsellor on 25 October 1948. As a Lord Justice of Appeal he continued to make reforming judgments in a variety of areas, particularly in family law and the rights of deserted wives. Bendall v McWhirter [1952] 2 QB 466 ruled that a deserted wife occupying the marital home had a personal licence to stay there.[56] The decision provoked disapproval among the judiciary and from the public; a correspondent wrote:

Dear Sir: You are a disgrace to all mankind to let these women break up homes and expect us chaps to keep them while they rob us of what we have worked for and put us out on the street. I only hope you have the same trouble as us. So do us all a favour and take a Rolls and run off Beachy Head and don't come back.[57]

This was effectively nullified with the case National Provincial Bank Ltd v Ainsworth [1965] AC 1175 in 1965, which ruled that the deserted wife had no licence to stay. The decision was very unpopular and led to the passing of the Matrimonial Homes Act 1967. Much of his work in favour of the deserted wife was based around his interpretation of the Married Women's Property Act 1882, which the House of Lords unanimously overruled in Pettitt v Pettitt [1970] AC 777 in 1970.[58] Further notable decisions by Denning in this area were Heseltine v Heseltine [1971] 1 WLR 342 in 1971 and Wachtel v Wachtel [1973] Fam 72 in 1973,[59] which created basic rules for dividing family assets in a divorce case, something which had not previously been established in the law.[60]

In 1951 he gave a noted dissenting judgment in the case Candler v Crane, Christmas & Co regarded as a 'brilliant advancement to the law of negligent misstatements'[61] and which was later approved of by the House of Lords in Hedley Byrne v Heller & Partners Ltd [1963] 2 All ER 575. In Combe v Combe in 1952 he elaborated on his resurrected doctrine of promissory estoppel, saying that it could be a 'shield' not a 'sword'; it could be used to defend a claim, but not to create a cause of action where none existed.[62][63] In 1954 his decision in Roe v Minister of Health [1954] 2 AER 131 altered the grounds on which hospital staff could be found negligent, a legal precedent he himself had set in Gold v Essex County Council in 1942. In 1955 his leading judgment in Entores Ltd v Miles Far East Corporation [1955] 2 QB 327 implemented a way to judge the moment of acceptance in an instantaneous or near-instantaneous method of communication; like the 'High Trees' case it is still valid.[64]

After the resignation of Lord Oaksey in 1956 Denning was offered a job as a Law Lord. After a period of contemplation (he worried that such an appointment would reduce his chances of becoming Master of the Rolls or Lord Chief Justice) he accepted, and was formally offered the job on 5 April 1957. He was appointed on 24 April 1957, as Baron Denning, of Whitchurch in the County of Southampton; for the supporters of his coat of arms he chose Lord Mansfield and Sir Edward Coke.[65] Many members of the judiciary and the Bar approved of his appointment, but he was warned that he should move slowly to reform the court.[66] During his time in the House of Lords he also served as Chairman of the Quarter Sessions of East Sussex.

Denning did not enjoy his time in the House of Lords and clashed frequently with Gavin, Viscount Simonds, who was known as a conservative and orthodox judge.[67] Despite his reputation as a fiercely individual judge, Denning dissented in only 16% of cases he heard in the House of Lords; fewer than Lord Keith, who dissented 22% of the time.[67] On 9 May 1960, Denning was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Sussex.[68]

In 1962 Lord Evershed resigned as Master of the Rolls, and Denning was appointed to replace him on 19 April 1962[69] with a salary of £9,000. Although Denning himself described it as 'a step down' he was pleased with his appointment, as he had much preferred his time with the Court of Appeal than the House of Lords.[70] Court of Appeal judges sit in threes, and the Lords in fives (or more), so it was suggested that to get his way in the Court of Appeal Denning only had to persuade one other judge whereas in the House of Lords it was at least two. The other 'benefit' of the Court of Appeal is that it hears more cases than the House of Lords, and so has a greater effect on the law. During his twenty years as Master of the Rolls, Denning could choose both which cases he heard, and the judges with whom he sat. Therefore, on most issues, he effectively had the last word; comparatively few cases went on to the House of Lords, which was at that time Britain's highest court of law.

As Master of the Rolls he selected cases he felt to be particularly important to hear and, rather than having an American system (where judges had a rota for taking cases), assigned cases to those judges who had expertise in that particular area of law. In 1963 he chaired a committee investigating ways to reduce the archive of legal documents kept by the Public Record Office; by that point the files for civil cases of the High Court alone occupied four miles of shelving.[71] The final report was presented to the Lord Chancellor on 16 May 1966, with the conclusion being that 'if our proposals are implemented the Public Record Office alone will be relieved of two hundred tons of records (occupying 15,000 feet of shelving)'.[72] The Lord Chancellor took Denning's report to heart, and had the changes he recommended implemented immediately.[73]

In retirement Denning moved to Whitchurch and continued the work he had done outside court hours, lecturing and presenting awards. He also on occasion dispensed legal advice; in February 1983 he advised Patrick Evershed on the statutory duties of water suppliers.[95] Further hip troubles were resolved with a full replacement in March 1983, although a fall later that year forced him to stay at home for six weeks. With free time on his hands Denning spoke in the House of Lords on matters that interested him, supporting an amendment to the Abortion Act 1967 and bills designed to allow the administration of companies in financial difficulties.

In 1983 he published the final volume of his autobiography The Closing Chapter and a year later published Landmarks in the Law. His final book titled Leaves from my Library was published in 1986; it was a collection of his favourite pieces of prose, and was subtitled "An English Anthology".[96] He appeared in an episode of the children's television programme Jim'll Fix It, helping to grant a thirteen-year-old girl's wish to be a barrister for a day.[97][98] By 1989 his health was failing; he was suffering from dizzy spells, and after falling from a train at Waterloo station he was advised he should not visit London again unless he was driven.[99]

In the summer of 1990 he agreed to a taped interview with A.N. Wilson, to be published in The Spectator. They discussed the Guildford Four; Denning remarked that if the Guildford Four had been hanged "They'd probably have hanged the right men. Just not proved against them, that's all".[100] His remarks were controversial and came at a time when the issue of miscarriage of justice was a sensitive topic.[101] He had expressed a similar controversial opinion regarding the Birmingham Six in 1988, saying: "Hanging ought to be retained for murder most foul. We shouldn't have all these campaigns to get the Birmingham Six released if they'd been hanged. They'd have been forgotten, and the whole community would be satisfied... It is better that some innocent men remain in jail than that the integrity of the English judicial system be impugned."[102][103]

On 25 November 1997 he was appointed to the Order of Merit;[104] by this point he was too weak to travel to London to receive it, so instead a representative of the Queen travelled to Whitchurch to present it to him.[105]

He celebrated his 100th birthday in Whitchurch on 23 January 1999, receiving telegrams from both the Queen and Queen Mother. A male choir sang "Happy Birthday to You" and the local church had a new bell named "Great Tom" cast in his honour specifically for the occasion.[105] By this point his health had deteriorated even further; he was legally blind and required a hearing aid.[86] On 5 March 1999 he fell ill and was rushed to Royal Hampshire County Hospital, where he died of an internal haemorrhage.[105] He was the last veteran of World War I to sit in the House of Lords.

Denning was buried in his home town of Whitchurch, in the local churchyard.[106] A memorial service was held at Westminster Abbey on 17 June 1999; among the tributes received, one was from the Lord Chief Justice Lord Bingham, who described Denning as 'the best-known and best loved judge in our history'.[105]

As well as his work as a barrister and judge, Denning was involved in supporting student law societies and other groups; at various times he was Vice-President of Queen's University Belfast Law Society and a patron of the Legal Research Foundation, the United Law Clerks' Society and the Commonwealth Legal Education Association. He also spent time as the Vice-President of the Society of Genealogists, Honorary President of the Council for the Protection of Rural England and Honorary President of the Glasgow University Dialectic Society.[107] From 1950 he acted as an administrator and fund-raiser for Cumberland Lodge. After being made aware of the Le Court charity for invalid ex-servicemen by Geoffrey Cheshire, Denning became the chairman of the organisation in 1952.[108] In 1953 he was elected President of Birkbeck College, University of London and on 18 March presented the 1952 Haldane Memorial Lecture on the subject of the rule of law and the welfare state.[109] In 1964 he was made President of the English Association in recognition of his contributions to English prose.[110] He became Chairman of the Historical Manuscripts Commission in 1962,[111] resigning in December 1982.[112]

In 1949 he gave the inaugural Hamlyn Lectures at the Senate House, University of London under the title Freedom under the Law.[113] The success of these lectures led to his being invited to speak at many more events; in early 1950 he spoke at University College, Dublin and in June spoke at the Holdsworth Club meeting at Birmingham University.[114] In February 1953 he gave a speech on 'the need for a new equity' to the Bentham Club at University College London, and in May gave the thirty-third Earl Grey Memorial Lecture at King's College, University of Durham (now, part of Newcastle University[115]), on the influence of religion on law.[109] Towards the end of his judicial career he gave the 1980 Richard Dimbleby Lecture on the subject of "Misuse of Power".[116]

In addition to being a Bencher of Lincoln's Inn in 1944 he was made an Honorary Bencher of Middle Temple in 1972, Gray's Inn in 1979 and Inner Temple in 1982, making him the only person[107] to be elected a Bencher or Honorary Bencher of all four Inns of Court. In 1963 he was made a Doctor of Civil Law by the University of Oxford.[117] In 1977 he was awarded with an honorary doctorate in the Netherlands, by Tilburg Law School, part of Tilburg University. He was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Hampshire on 2 June 1978.[118]

Throughout his career Denning travelled to a variety of foreign countries to lecture and learn more about other legal systems. In 1954 he was sponsored by the Nuffield Foundation to travel to South Africa and visit the universities there in the court vacation. He visited all six universities, accompanied by his son Robert and wife Joan, lecturing on the role of the judiciary and the press in safeguarding freedom.[119] In 1955 he travelled to the United States at the behest of the American Bar Association and was elected an honorary member, followed by a trip to Canada a year later as a guest of the Canadian Bar Association, where he was awarded an honorary law doctorate by the University of Ottawa and made a life member of the Canadian Bar Association.[54][120] In 1958 he visited Israel and from there travelled to Poland, where he was surprised by both the number of female judges and how badly they were paid.[121] In 1961 he travelled again to Israel to give the Lionel Cohen Lecture at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.[122]

In January 1964 he and his wife Joan travelled to India and Pakistan, visiting major cities such as Madras (now Chennai) and Jaipur, meeting eminent jurists and speaking with Jawaharlal Nehru.[123] He again visited Canada and the United States in the long vacation of 1964 and addressed a full conference hall in New York.[110] On 14 August 1965 he and his wife flew to South America for a month-long tour of the continent sponsored by the British Council. The couple visited Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile and Peru before flying north to visit Mexico City.[124] On 6 January 1966 they flew to Malta, where Denning spoke at various legal conferences and lectures. In the same year they flew to San Francisco, Fiji and finally to New Zealand to take part in the law conference at Dunedin, New Zealand.[124] His lecture at the conference so impressed an Australian visitor that he was invited in 1967 to speak at the Australian Law Society annual conference.[124] On the way home the couple made a stop at Delhi, where they gave a dinner for members of the Indian Bar who had welcomed them during their visit in 1964. In 1968 they again visited Canada, and Denning was given an honorary degree by McGill University.[125] In 1969 he again travelled to India, this time on an official visit with Elwyn Jones and Sir John Widgery.[126]

In August 1969 he travelled to Fiji to arbitrate in a dispute between a majority of Fijian sugarcane growers and the Australian owners of the refining mills, which he was permitted to do on the condition he did not take a fee. Denning refused to have any contact with the government as a way to emphasise his neutrality in the situation. The agreements between growers and millers had been based on a contract written in 1961 due to end in March 1970. The growers were convinced that they were getting a bad deal; in response to their demand for better terms the mill-owners threatened to leave Fiji. Despite criticism from both sides at the beginning of the arbitration process Denning came up with a solution which redressed matters in favour of growers, creating a new formula for working out prices and requiring that the mill owners have an accountant inspect their accounts and report back to the growers.[127] Denning's decision impressed the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, who invited him to report on the banana growing industry in Jamaica in the vacation of 1971.[128] His foreign travels to lecture on English law led to him being described as the "Ambassador-at-Large for the common law".[111]

Denning was noted for his excellent memory, repeating notes almost verbatim in his exams at Oxford and on one occasion identifying the exact book, page and paragraph of text in a judgment that covered a particular situation.[129] As a judge he attempted to make his decisions and the law publicly understandable, believing that the public would not want to follow the law unless they believed and understood that it was just.[111] In his cases he referred to the parties by name in his judgments rather than as "plaintiff" and "defendant" and used short sentences and a "storytelling" style of speech shown in the case Beswick v Beswick[130] where his judgment started:

Old Peter Beswick was a coal merchant in Eccles, Lancashire. He had no business premises. All he had was a lorry, scales, and weights. He used to take the lorry to the yard of the National Coal Board, where he bagged coal and took it round to his customers in the neighbourhood. His nephew, John Joseph Beswick, helped him in his business. In March 1962, old Peter Beswick and his wife were both over 70. He had had his leg amputated and was not in good health. The nephew was anxious to get hold of the business before the old man died. So they went to a solicitor, Mr. Ashcroft, who drew up an agreement for them.[131]

In court Denning preferred to let counsel talk on for as long as they wanted to so that he could get a grasp of the situation without wading through irrelevant court papers; to prevent them going on too long he sat quietly and allowed them to wind down at their own pace.[132]

Denning was also known for his long working schedule; when he served as Master of the Rolls he sat for five full days a week, and required reserved judgments (about one case in ten) to be written during the weekend. He expected the other justices to keep to the same schedule as him, and was repeatedly warned about overwork.[133] Fellow judge Richard Henn Collins wrote him a poem:

My brother pray be warned by me
And always rise in time for tea
And when you feel you must sit late
Remember my untoward fate[134]
Don't go on sitting until seven
But sit next morning at eleven[133]

Unlike most of the judiciary Denning firmly believed that the press should have access to the courts and freedom to criticise magistrates and judges. He believed all legal proceedings should be held in public, quoting Jeremy Bentham when he said that "in the darkness of secrecy all sorts of things can go wrong. If things are really done in public you can see that the judge does behave himself, the newspapers can comment on it if he misbehaves — it keeps everyone in order".[135]

For many years Denning was the president of the Lawyers' Christian Fellowship, and he once wrote that "Without religion there is no morality, and without morality there is no law."[136] His Christian beliefs sometimes affected his judgments, particularly on the subject of the sanctity of marriage. In Re L (infants) he reversed a decision to give the children of a couple to the wife in a divorce case, believing that should the wife get custody of the children there would be no chance of saving the marriage.[137]

Denning has been described as the most influential judge of the 20th century,[138] in part because of his changes to the common law and also due to his personalisation of the legal profession. Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher referred to Denning as "probably the greatest English judge of modern times" and former Prime Minister Tony Blair lauded him as "one of the great men of his age". The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Bingham, said "Lord Denning was the best-known and best-loved judge of this or perhaps any generation" and "a legend in his own lifetime".[1]

With his judgments on war pensions and his role in the enquiry into the Profumo affair, Denning became possibly the best-known judge ever to belong to the English judiciary,[138] with the public treating Denning and the Court of Appeal as synonymous.[139] He was equally well-loved and controversial, appreciated for his role as 'the people's judge' and his support for the common man and disliked by elements of the bar and judiciary for 'uncertainty in the law' created by his broad judgments.[140]

Denning made sweeping changes to the Common Law, with the resurrection of equitable estoppel and his reform of divorce law. A common misconception is that most of his judgments were overturned in the House of Lords; many were, including the expansion to the doctrine of fundamental breach he set out in Photo Production Ltd v Securicor Transport Ltd, but they let many judgments stand and on occasion agreed with his judgment in situations where he dissented, such as in his final case George Mitchell (Chesterhall) Ltd v Finney Lock Seeds Ltd in 1983.[141]

Several law-related things have been named after Denning due to his reputation as a judge, in particular the Lord Denning Scholarship of Lincoln's Inn and the Denning Law Journal of the University of Buckingham.

Denning's shield of arms [142]

Denning met his future wife Mary Harvey on 25 October 1914 aged fifteen at his confirmation; she was the daughter of the Vicar of Whitchurch. Denning attempted to court her for many years, but for a long time his love was unrequited, with Mary wanting them to be only friends.[143] After a dance at Beaulieu on 18 January 1930 she told him of her love for him, and he returned to Hampshire with her to pick out an engagement ring.[144] Barely six months away from the set date for their wedding Mary was diagnosed with tuberculosis, but she recovered and the couple were married on 28 December 1932, with the wedding officiated by Cecil Henry Boutflower, Bishop of Southampton.[145]

The couple moved to London in 1933 but the city at the time was sooty and foggy. This affected Mary's health, and after treatment at Guy's Hospital she was transferred to Brompton Hospital, where she had a lung removed. After recovering, she moved to Southampton to stay with her parents for two years, with Denning visiting every weekend.[145] By 1935 she had fully recovered, and the couple bought a house in Tylers Green, Cuckfield, called Fair Close. Their son, Robert, was born on 3 August 1938; he later became a Dean at Magdalen College, Oxford, teaching inorganic chemistry.[25] Mary developed gallstones in 1941, and after an initial recovery had a haemorrhage on 21 November, dying the next morning.[146]

In 1945 Denning met Joan Stuart, a widow with three children: Pauline, Hazel and John. They married on 27 December 1945, and were by all accounts happy together.[44] On 19 October 1992 she suffered a massive heart attack; although she survived the initial attack she died a few days later on 23 October.[147]

• List of cases involving Lord Denning

• Denning, Alfred Thompson (1983). The Closing Chapter. Butterworths. ISBN 978-0-406-17612-7.
• de Burgh, Hugo, ed. (2000). Investigative Journalism: Context and Practice. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-19054-1.
• Elliott, Catherine (2007). English legal system. Pearson Education. ISBN 978-1-4058-4733-9.
• Freeman, Iris (1993). Lord Denning – A Life. Random House. ISBN 978-0-09-174594-3.
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• Hodge, Sue (2004). Tort Law. Willan Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84392-098-4. Retrieved 17 January 2009.
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• Whitton, Evan (1988). The Cartel: Lawyers and their Nine Magic Tricks. E & N Whitton. ISBN 978-0-646-34887-2.

• Stephens, Charles (2009). Fiat Justitia: Lord Denning and the Common Law. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4438-1244-3.
• Stephens, Charles (2009). The Last of England: Lord Denning's Englishry and the Law. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4438-1245-0.
• Stephens, Charles (2009). Freedom under the Law: Lord Denning as Master of the Rolls 1962–1982. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4438-1246-7.

• 1963 Denning Report - Parliament & the 1960s - UK Parliament Living Heritage

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Lord Denning

• "Archival material relating to Tom Denning, Baron Denning". UK National Archives.