Sir Anthony Brian Hidden (7 March 1936 – 19 February 2016) was a British

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, jurisprud ...

and judge, known for chairing the enquiry into the 1988 Clapham Junction rail crash.

Biography

Anthony Hidden was educated at Reigate Grammar School becoming

head boy The two Senior Prefects, individually called Head Boy (for the male), and Head Girl (for the female) are students who carry leadership roles and are responsible for representing the school's entire student body. Although mostly out of use, in some ...

in 1954, and graduated from Emmanuel College, Cambridge in 1957. He served with the

Royal Tank Regiment The Royal Tank Regiment (RTR) is the oldest tank unit in the world, being formed by the British Army in 1916 during the World War I, First World War. Today, it is an Armoured warfare, armoured regiment equipped with Challenger 2 main battle tanks ...

, and was called to the Bar 1961. He was made a Queen's counsel in 1976, appointed as a recorder in 1977, and for four years served as presiding judge on the South-East circuit. Anthony Hidden was a member of the Cornerstone Barristers practice. He acted as prosecuting counsel in the trial of Lester Piggott for tax evasion. He was appointed a High Court Judge in 1989, and received a knighthood in the same year. An early controversial case in which he presided was to ascertain whether compensation for post-traumatic stress disorder should be awarded to individuals who witnessed on television their relatives in distressed states during the

Hillsborough disaster The Hillsborough disaster was a fatal crowd crush at a football match at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, on 15 April 1989. It occurred during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in the tw ...

. Hidden ruled for the claimants, but the finding was reversed upon appeals at the

Court of Appeal An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to Hearing (law), hear a Legal case, case upon appeal from a trial court or other ...

and the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

. He suffered a

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

in 2000, and after a later second stroke was confined to a nursing home for the last ten years of his life.

Clapham Junction rail crash enquiry

At the invitation of Paul Channon, the Secretary of State for Transport, Hidden chaired an enquiry into the causes of the 12 December 1988 Clapham Junction rail crash, in which 35 people died and nearly 500 were injured. He won praise for his unrelenting approach throughout the 56-day hearing, and for the thoroughness of his report. The enquiry report (known as the ''Hidden Report'') made 93 recommendations for safety and other improvements, including the adoption of the

Automatic Train Protection Automatic train protection (ATP) is the generic term for train protection systems that continually check that the speed of a train is compatible with the permitted speed allowed by signalling, including automatic stop at certain signal aspects ...

system. Although his recommendations led to major improvements in rail safety and safety culture in the UK, equally, a number of the recommendations – including ATP, on-train data recorders and cab radios – were not acted on, or implemented only after great delay or partially.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hidden, Anthony 1936 births 2016 deaths Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge 20th-century English judges English King's Counsel Royal Tank Regiment soldiers People educated at Reigate Grammar School Queen's Bench Division judges Knights Bachelor 20th-century British Army personnel