To continue our series of profiles of the Justices of the Supreme Court (for previous posts see Lord Rodger here, Lord Kerr here and Lord Hope here), we turn this week to Lord Brown of Eaton-under-Heywood.
Simon Denis Brown was born on 9 April 1937, the son of Denis Baer Brown and Edna Elizabeth Abrahams. He was educated at
Stowe School, Buckinghamshire before undertaking military service in the Royal Artillery from 1955 to 1957, reaching the rank of 2nd Lieutenant. Brown was in active service in Cyprus from 1956 to 1957.
Lord Brown then attended
Worcester College, Oxford: he graduated in 1961 and was called to the Bar at the Middle Temple the same year as a Harmsworth scholar. Brown became a Bencher of the Inn in 1980 and an honorary fellow of
Worcester College in 1993.
Brown was appointed as a Recorder of the Crown Court in 1979 and in the same year was appointed First Junior Treasury Counsel (common law), succeeding Lord Woolf. In 1984, Brown was appointed to the High Court (at the age of 47) and was assigned to the Queen’s Bench Division, receiving a Knighthood on his appointment. In 1992, Brown became a Lord Justice of Appeal and a Privy Counsellor. Brown was the vice-president of the Court of Appeal (Civil Division) between 2001 and 2003 and was then appointed a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary in 2004 and a life peer with the title Baron Brown of Eaton-under-Heywood. Lord Brown became a Justice of the Supreme Court on 1 October 2009 on the inauguration of the new court.
Lord Brown has also been President of the Security Service Tribunal (from 1989 to 2000), President of the Intelligence Services Tribunal (from 1995 to 2000), Intelligence services Commissioner (from 2000 to 2006) and Chairman of Sub-Committee E (law and institutions) of the House of Lords European Select Committee from 2005 to 2007.
Lord Brown heard 11 out of the 12 cases on which the Supreme Court has
handed down judgment so far this term and gave a dissenting judgment in one.
Lord Brown has married to Jennifer Buddicom (since 1963) and has two sons, Benedict and Daniel and one daughter, Abigail. Lord Brown’s interests are cited in Debretts and Who’s Who as “golf, theatre and reading”. He is a member of Denham Golf Club and the Garrick and he is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Butchers.
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