Rhubarb 2017

38 ST EDWARD’S r h u b a r b

scars for the rest of his life. He arrived back in Britain with a growing family, having married Margaret “Mossy” Oxley in 1955 after meeting her on the ski slopes of Kitzbühel, Austria. Swapping the mountain air for London smog, he settled his family in a pastel-coloured William IV house in St John’s Wood Terrace. From 1961 to 1965 he served as private secretary to three Lord Chancellors — Lord Kilmuir, Lord Dilhorne and Lord Gardiner. Oulton was then appointed secretary to the Royal Commission, which Lord Gardiner established under the chairmanship of Lord Beeching, on Assizes and Quarter Sessions. Oulton found time to write (with James Matthews) a textbook on legal aid and advice, for which he was awarded his PhD by Cambridge. He served on the Lord Chancellor’s advisory committee on legal aid. In 1976 he was promoted, most unusually, two civil service grades at once, from assistant secretary to deputy secretary and given responsibility for advising the Lord Chancellor on judicial appointments. As permanent secretary from 1982 he oversaw an extensive programme of court building. He had been appointed CB in 1979 and was knighted in 1984. On his retirement in 1989 he was advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath. Oulton then started a second career at Magdalene College, Cambridge, teaching law and how institutions of government function. He enjoyed travelling in his later years, particularly to South Africa, where he helped to identify candidates for the college’s Mandela scholarship. He also started to research his family history. His

in 1952. He then went to Kenya, where his parents then lived, to join the Nairobi firm of Daly and Figgis as an advocate. In 1953, with the Mau Mau rebellion against British rule ratcheting up, the government of British Kenya appointed Oulton as a temporary administrative officer. Possession of a firearm was essential, although at one point Oulton’s weapon singularly failed to protect him when he shot himself in the foot owing to a dodgy safety catch on his father’s old service revolver. He was later accidentally shot in the back by friendly fire as he was engaging with Mau Mau raiders. He survived to bear the

delay in civil litigation. This led to the Courts and Legal Services Act two years later that broke the monopoly of the Bar and granted solicitors the right to be advocates in the higher courts. Antony Derek Maxwell Oulton was born in Gosport, Hampshire, in 1927 into an Anglo-Irish family. He spent his earliest years in Egypt where his parents, Charles and Elizabeth, ran a cotton plantation. He was educated at St Edward’s School, Oxford, and stayed with his cousins in England throughout the war. He took law at King’s College, Cambridge, where he was awarded a First. He was called to the Bar by Gray’s Inn

popularity at Magdalene led to extracurricular jobs. He drafted a new constitution for the Junior Combination Room with the same degree of care as if it were a newly independent colony; as senior treasurer of the May Ball he restored a style never subsequently lost. One job that gave him particular pleasure was the presidency of Magdalene’s Rugby Club, which he accepted even though he had never played the game. He brought to it his customary enthusiasm, turning up to support the team in all weathers. 1953-1958). The following is taken from the eulogy given by Richard’s brother, Peter Pearson (B, 1961-1966), provided by Chris Sprague (C, 1957-1962): Richard was born on 4th May 1940 in Muree, a hill station in the North of India. In 1941, Pop had orders to go to Bombay and then onto an unknown destination, leaving his pregnant wife and young Richard at the railway station in Nowshera. The arrangements were that Moppy would then go to Simla where Pop’s brother Uncle Frank was stationed, to await the arrival of the new baby. On 8th January 1941, our delightful sister Rachel was born! Richard was brought by his aunt to visit the new arrival, I think reluctantly, because he had been bribed with the promise of a biscuit, eating half on the way, he then presented his sister with the other half, which Mum thought showed “a very generous nature”! “This sturdy child” as Moppy described him was about 19 months old, beginning to walk, and a bit of a menace according to my mother. Because of this, PEARSON – In August 2016, Richard Pearson (B,

V A L E T E O B I T U A R I E S

Derek Oulton