Lymbery was born into a Nottingham lace manufacturing family and educated at
Gresham's School
Gresham's School is a private school (English fee-charging boarding and day school) in Holt, Norfolk, England, one of the top thirty International Baccalaureate schools in England.
The school was founded in 1555 by Sir John Gresham as a f ...
in Norfolk and
Pembroke College, Cambridge
Pembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college is the third-oldest college of the university and has over 700 students and fellows. It is one of the university's larger colleges, with buildings from ...
, where he studied law. In 1940, during the Second World War, he was commissioned into the
17th/21st Lancers
The 17th/21st Lancers was a Cavalry regiments of the British Army, cavalry regiment of the British Army. It was formed in England by the amalgamation of the 17th Lancers and the 21st Lancers in 1922 and, after service in the World War II, Second W ...
of the
British Army
The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...
and posted as a tank commander with the Eighth Army to North Africa, Sicily, mainland Italy, and Greece.
Judicial career
After the war Lymbery returned to Cambridge to complete his degree, before entering 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 ...
to further his law studies, 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 ...
in 1949. He then joined the London chambers of Richard Elwes, QC, in King's Bench Walk, and built a primarily criminal practice on the Midland Circuit. He
took Silk
A King's Counsel ( post-nominal initials KC) is a senior lawyer appointed by the monarch (or their viceregal representative) of some Commonwealth realms as a "Counsel learned in the law". When the reigning monarch is a woman, the title is Qu ...
in 1967 (i.e. became a
Q.C.
QC may refer to:
Places
* Quebec, a Canadian province
** Quebec City, its capital
* Quezon City, Philippines
* The Quad Cities, an American metropolitan area along the Mississippi River
* QualiEd College, a Hong Kong high school
Arts and entert ...
).
In 1965 he got his first judicial appointment as
Recorder Recorder or The Recorder may refer to:
Newspapers
* ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper
* ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US
* ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a newsp ...
of Grantham. He served as chairman of the Rutland Quarter Sessions from 1966 until 1971, and of the Bedford Quarter Sessions from 1969 to 1970, and was Commissioner of Assize in 1971. He became a circuit judge later that same year, based in Bedford, and transferred to the
Old Bailey
The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly referred to as the Old Bailey after the street on which it stands, is a criminal court building in central London, one of several that house the Crown Court of England and Wales. The s ...
in 1982.
There he presided over some well-publicised trials, such as those of safe deposit robber Valerio Viccei and
Winston Silcott
Winston Silcott (born 1959),Winston Silcott: An infamous past (
Keith Blakelock
Keith Henry Blakelock King's Gallantry Medal, QGM, a London Metropolitan Police constable, was murdered on 6 October 1985 during the Broadwater Farm riot in Tottenham, north London. The riot broke out after Cynthia Jarrett died of heart failur ...
. He was appointed Common Serjeant in 1990, serving in that position until his retirement in 1993.
Lymbery had married, in 1952, Anne Tuckett, with whom he had three daughters. He died in 2008.