Sir Roland Giffard Oliver, MC (5 May 1882 – 14 March 1967) was an English barrister and High Court judge.

Biography

Early life and legal career

Roland Oliver was the third son of Edmund Ward Oliver of

Orlestone Orlestone is a mid-sized civil parish in Ashford District, Kent, England, with a population of 1,407. The centre of the parish is Hamstreet village which falls almost entirely within it but has a small fraction in the parish of Warehorne. The ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. He was educated at

Marlborough College Marlborough College is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Independent school (United Kingdom), independent boarding school) for pupils aged 13 to 18 in Marlborough, Wiltshire, England. Founded in 1843 for the sons of Church ...

and

Corpus Christi College, Oxford Corpus Christi College (formally, Corpus Christi College in the University of Oxford; informally abbreviated as Corpus or CCC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1517, it is the 1 ...

, where he obtained second-class honours in Jurisprudence. He was called to the Bar by the

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and W ...

in 1909 and joined the South-Eastern Circuit. He was the

pupil The pupil is a black hole located in the center of the iris of the eye that allows light to strike the retina.Cassin, B. and Solomon, S. (1990) ''Dictionary of Eye Terminology''. Gainesville, Florida: Triad Publishing Company. It appears black ...

, and then the

devil A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of ...

, of

Travers Humphreys Sir Richard Somers Travers Christmas Humphreys (4 August 1867 – 20 February 1956) was a noted British barrister and judge who, during a sixty-year legal career, was involved in the cases of Oscar Wilde and the murderers Hawley Harvey Crippen, ...

(later Mr Justice Humphreys) whose son,

Christmas Humphreys Travers Christmas Humphreys, QC (15 February 1901 – 13 April 1983) was a British barrister who prosecuted several controversial cases in the 1940s and 1950s, and who later became a judge at the Old Bailey. He also wrote a number of works on ...

, would later become Oliver's own pupil. During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...

, Oliver served with the

Royal Field Artillery The Royal Field Artillery (RFA) of the British Army provided close artillery support for the infantry. It came into being when created as a distinct arm of the Royal Regiment of Artillery on 1 July 1899, serving alongside the other two arms of ...

, and received the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC i ...

. In 1921, he was appointed Third Junior Prosecuting Counsel for the Crown at the Central Criminal Court, and thereafter he took part in many notable criminal trials. These included the 1922 trial of

Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters Edith Jessie Thompson (25 December 1893 – 9 January 1923) and Frederick Edward Francis Bywaters (27 June 1902 – 9 January 1923) were a British couple executed for the murder of Thompson's husband Percy. Their case became a ''cause c ...

for murder, and the "Mr A." case, which arose out of the civil action ''Robinson v. Midland Bank''. In 1925, Oliver was appointed a

King's Counsel In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel (post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of a queen, is a lawyer (usually a barrister or ...

and in 1934 he was elected a

Bencher A bencher or Master of the Bench is a senior member of an Inn of Court in England and Wales or the Inns of Court in Northern Ireland, or the Honorable Society of King's Inns in Ireland. Benchers hold office for life once elected. A bencher ca ...

of the Inner Temple. Although his reputation was in criminal cases, after he took silk he began to be briefed in an increasing number of civil cases as well. In 1931, he unsuccessful defended

William Herbert Wallace William Herbert Wallace (29 August 1878 – 26 February 1933) was an Englishman convicted in 1931 of the murder of his wife, Julia, in their home in Wolverton Street in Liverpool's Anfield district. Wallace's conviction was later overturned by the ...

on a charge of murder, although the jury verdict was exceptionally quashed on appeal. In the 1933 "fire-rising" case, he led for the Crown in the prosecution of Leopold Harris, as well as the subsequent prosecution of Captain Brymore Eric Miles of the London Salvage Corps. In 1932, he appeared in the

consistory court A consistory court is a type of ecclesiastical court, especially within the Church of England where they were originally established pursuant to a charter of King William the Conqueror, and still exist today, although since about the middle of the ...

for the

Bishop of Norwich The Bishop of Norwich is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Norwich in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers most of the county of Norfolk and part of Suffolk. The bishop of Norwich is Graham Usher. The see is in t ...

in the action against the Rev.

Harold Davidson Harold Francis Davidson (14 July 1875 – 30 July 1937), generally known as the Rector of Stiffkey, was a Church of England priest who in 1932, after a public scandal, was convicted of immorality by a church court and defrocked. Davidson ...

, which led to his defrocking. In 1938, he successfully defended Dr. Aleck Bourne on a charge of abortion. Oliver was Recorder of

Folkestone Folkestone ( ) is a port town on the English Channel, in Kent, south-east England. The town lies on the southern edge of the North Downs at a valley between two cliffs. It was an important harbour and shipping port for most of the 19th and 20t ...

from 1926 to 1938. In addition, he was a member of the 1936 inquiry into the leakage of the Budget, and chaired a committee on court martial procedure in 1938.

Judicial career

In 1938, Oliver was appointed to the

High Court of Justice The High Court of Justice in London, known properly as His Majesty's High Court of Justice in England, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, are the Senior Courts of England and Wales. Its name is abbreviated as EWHC (Englan ...

in succession to Mr Justice Horridge. He was knighted upon his appointment and was assigned to the

King's Bench Division The King's Bench Division (or Queen's Bench Division when the monarch is female) of the High Court of Justice deals with a wide range of common law cases and has supervisory responsibility over certain lower courts. It hears appeals on point ...

. In 1943, he chaired an inquiry into the conditions in naval and military prisons and detention barracks. In 1948, he tried Peter Griffiths for the murder of June Anne Devaney. In 1951, he tried

John Straffen John Thomas Straffen (27 February 1930 – 19 November 2007) was a British serial killer who was the longest-serving prisoner in British history. After killing two young girls in the summer of 1951, he was found unfit to plead at trial and commi ...

, who was found to be unfit to plead. He retired in 1957, after a final sitting at the Old Bailey.

Family

Oliver married Winifred Burnaby, third daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Burnaby, in 1923; she died in 1959. Oliver then married Mrs. Madelaine Mary Kean in 1961; she died in 1974.

Assessment

His obituary in ''The Times'' described him as "an outstanding figure at the criminal law Bar". He was described as having a quiet manner and a soft voice, but also "a strong and forceful character".

References

* "Sir Roland Oliver", ''The Times'', 16 March 1967, p. 16. * ''Who Was Who''

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Oliver, Roland 20th-century King's Counsel 1967 deaths 1882 births People educated at Marlborough College Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Oxford Members of the Inner Temple British Army personnel of World War I Royal Field Artillery officers Recipients of the Military Cross English King's Counsel Queen's Bench Division judges