Sir Denis William Dobson (17 October 1908 – 15 December 1995) was a British

solicitor A solicitor is a lawyer who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and enabled to p ...

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 civil servant who served as Permanent Secretary to the Lord Chancellor's Department and

Clerk of the Crown in Chancery The Clerk of the Crown in Chancery in Great Britain is a senior civil servant who is the head of the Crown Office in Chancery, Crown Office. The Crown Office, a section of the Ministry of Justice (United Kingdom), Ministry of Justice, has cus ...

from 5 April 1968 to 15 April 1977.

Life

Dobson was born on 17 October 1908 to William Dobson, a shipbuilder, and his wife Laura. He was admitted to

Charterhouse School Charterhouse is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in Godalming, Surrey, England. Founded by Thomas Sutton in 1611 on the site of the old Carthusian monastery in Charter ...

in 1922, matriculating to

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

in 1926. He graduated in 1930 with a first class degree in law, and was added to the rolls as a solicitor in 1933. Moving to London he spent a year in a City firm before, disenchanted, joining a company of parliamentary draftsmen. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Dobson served with the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

, and was appointed an

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

in 1945. Suffering from tuberculosis he was unable to join the legal branch of the

Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * United ...

, and he instead joined the Statutory Publications Office, part of

HM Treasury His Majesty's Treasury (HM Treasury or HMT), and informally referred to as the Treasury, is the Government of the United Kingdom’s economic and finance ministry. The Treasury is responsible for public spending, financial services policy, Tax ...

. There the

Treasury Solicitor The Government Legal Department (previously called the Treasury Solicitor's Department) is the largest in-house legal organisation in the United Kingdom's Government Legal Profession. The department is headed by the Treasury Solicitor (formall ...

, Sir Thomas Barnes, introduced him to Albert Napier, the

Permanent Secretary to the Lord Chancellor's Office The Permanent Secretary to the Lord Chancellor's Department was the most senior civil servant in the Lord Chancellor's Department and a senior member of Civil Service (United Kingdom), Her Majesty's Civil Service. Officially titled Her Majesty's Pe ...

, who offered him a job. Accepting, he transferred to the

Lord Chancellor's Department The Lord Chancellor's Department was a United Kingdom government department answerable to the Lord Chancellor with jurisdiction over England and Wales. Created in 1885 as the Lord Chancellor's Office with a small staff to assist the Lord Chance ...

in April 1947, and was soon recognised as a potential future Permanent Secretary. With this in mind he qualified as a barrister, and was

called to the Bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

by the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court entitled to Call to the bar, call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple (with whi ...

in 1951. After Napier retired, Dobson became the assistant to the new Permanent Secretary, George Coldstream, and when Coldstream retired in 1968 Dobson was made Permanent Secretary and knighted. Dobson was made a KCB in 1969, and a

Queen's Counsel A King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) is a senior lawyer appointed by the monarch (or their Viceroy, viceregal representative) of some Commonwealth realms as a "Counsel learned in the law". When the reigning monarc ...

in 1971. Initially a reformer, by the time he became Permanent Secretary Dobson had become more conservative in his outlook, and is believed to have prevented several

Lord Chancellor The Lord Chancellor, formally titled Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom. The lord chancellor is the minister of justice for England and Wales and the highest-ra ...

s from making reforming actions. This was a particularly bad time for a conservative Permanent Secretary, since the report of the Beeching Commission and the transformation of the small Lord Chancellor's Department into a fully fledged government office needed a more radical Permanent Secretary. Dobson retired in 1977, sitting as a member of the Advisory Council on Public Records until 1983, and died on 15 December 1995.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dobson, Denis 1908 births 1995 deaths People educated at Charterhouse School British King's Counsel English solicitors Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Officers of the Order of the British Empire Lawyers awarded knighthoods Permanent Secretaries to the Lord Chancellor's Office 20th-century King's Counsel 20th-century British lawyers 20th-century English lawyers