‘A man of integrity – a guiding light at the Bar and in judiciary’
TRIBUTES TO RETIRED LEICESTER JUDGE WHO HAS DIED AGED 81
TRIBUTES have been paid to top Leicester judge, Richard ‘Dick’ Pollard who was described as a “guiding light” in the judiciary.
Barristers and judges gathered at the crown court, in Wellington Street, in memory of the respected 81-year-old retired judge, who died unexpectedly at home.
A packed courtroom in Leicester heard tributes and anecdotes in a eulogy, attended by Judge Pollard’s wife, Angela, and daughter, Emma.
Judge Philip Head described him as having been “a wise and humane lawyer”.
He recalled a letter was once sent to court from a remand prisoner in HMP Leicester.
The message was to Judge Pollard “promising guilty pleas, but only if Dick was the judge”.
A former Oakham School pupil and rugby enthusiast, he studied at Trinity College, Dublin, and Cambridge University.
He was called to the Bar by Gray’s Inn in 1967 and began his legal career as a pupil barrister in Leicester’s New Walk Chambers, before co-founding new chambers at 7 Fountain Square, in Birmingham, ending up as head of chambers.
The married father-of-three was appointed as a judge on the Midland Circuit in 1990, holding the post as Leicester’s senior resident judge between 1999 and 2002.
Judge Pollard moved on to become the Honorary Recorder of Nottingham, before retiring from the Bench in 2006.
He also widely shared his skills by tutoring others, said Judge Head, and was a course director with the Judicial Studies Board. In his address, Judge Head revealed that Judge Pollard was once chairman of the former Oadby Urban District Council and his mother, Coun Anne Pollard, was the Mayor of Leicester in 1974/5.
He referred to the retired judge as “warm, kind, witty and exceptionally good company.”
Leicester’s current senior resident judge, Timothy Spencer QC, said Judge Pollard was “the finest of men and a superb advocate”.
He said: “He was gravel-voiced and grounded, trusted by juries and the Bar.
“He was fair and humane – and many a judge would do well to model themselves on him.” Paying tribute on behalf of the Bar, Rex Tedd QC said his long-term good friend Judge Pollard mentored him during their early days at Leicester’s New Walk Chambers.
He said: “One of the first things he taught me was you needed to have the guts to stand up properly for your client.
“He was a powerful figure. He was a man of integrity – a guiding light at the Bar and judiciary. I miss him greatly.” In a written tribute, Michelle Heeley QC, leader of the Midland Circuit, said: “He married Angela over half a century ago, in 1964, and our thoughts are with her and their children, Caroline, Emma and William, as they grieve his loss.”
She said that, as a judge, Dick Pollard, who lived in the East Midlands, showed “scrupulous fairness and considerable shrewdness”.
He was also an avid sports fan, often, simultaneously, following various events at home on two television screens, with the volume turned down, while listening to an entirely different match on the radio.
Ms Heeley said: “In a typically laconic and modest entry in Who’s Who, Dick listed one of his recreations as ‘looking out of the window,’ without specifying the window concerned or what he was looking at.
“He was an assiduous attender at circuit events and his end of the table was always the noisiest and jolliest.
“He was a good man – indeed by most standards a great man. He will be sorely missed by members of our circuit and very many others.”
He was fair and humane – and many a judge would do well to model themselves on him
Timothy Spencer QC