Sir Martin Nourse
Outstanding Chancery lawyer and Lord Justice of Appeal who had wide interests and many friends
SIR MARTIN NOURSE, who has died aged 85, was a Lord Justice of Appeal of England and Wales and one of the most distinguished Chancery lawyers of his time; in 2000-1 he served as vicepresident of the civil division of the Court of Appeal, and for four months in 2000 was acting Master of the Rolls, during the period in which the designated incumbent of that office, Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, was completing his inquiry into the spread of BSE.
Martin Charles Nourse was born in Cambridge on April 3 1932, the younger son of Dr “Harry” Nourse, a GP, and Millicent, née Sargant. She was the daughter of Sir Charles Henry Sargant, who had been a Bencher of Lincoln’s Inn, a High Court judge in Chancery, and a Lord Justice of Appeal – in each of which his grandson, who was exceptionally proud of the connection, would follow him.
Nourse was sent in 1940 to St Ronan’s preparatory school, which for the duration of the war was evacuated from Worthing to Bicton House, Devon. One of his most memorable experiences was seeing a V-1 fly over his train on his journey home for the summer holidays in 1944. He won an exhibition to Winchester College, where he distinguished himself academically. He retained a lifelong devotion to the school: from 1993 until 2006 he sat as a fellow on its governing body.
On leaving in 1950 he undertook two years’ National Service in the Rifle Brigade. He was commissioned second lieutenant and enjoyed the challenge of commanding an armoured scout car. In 1952 he went up to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he joined a distinguished generation of lawyers that included Sir Desmond Fennell and Sir John Waite, with both of whom he forged lifelong friendships.
For those who knew Nourse in later life, and who saw a conventional man of immaculate manners, careful dress and understated personality, it came as a shock to learn that one of his main recreations at Cambridge had been as drummer in the university jazz band.
Equally, he was entirely unashamed that he only just passed his degree
– not because of intellectual shortcomings, but because he spent his time at Cambridge enjoying his social life. A lifelong aficionado of the turf, he would escape to Newmarket whenever he could.
Having entered the law, however, he applied himself to his profession with remarkable assiduity; he always believed a degree in law was not the best preparation for a career at the Bar, and would advise aspirants to read another subject at university instead.
He joined Lincoln’s Inn, and was called to the Bar in 1956. He became a pupil of John Brightman (Margaret Thatcher’s former pupil master) in New Square, and rapidly distinguished himself in the Chancery Division, specialising in the lucrative field of variation of trusts work, in which Brightman too was an expert.
He was soon marked out as a future leader of the profession. He became a member of the General Council of the Bar in 1964, serving until 1968, and was appointed junior counsel to the Board of Trade in 1967. In 1970 he became one of the first of his contemporaries to take silk, and from 1976 to 1980 served as Attorney General to the Duchy of Lancaster.
He had his first judicial experience in 1977, when he began a three-year stint as a Judge of the Courts of Appeal of Jersey and Guernsey. In 1980 he was appointed a High Court Judge of the Chancery Division, and was knighted. He was sworn of the Privy Council in 1985, when he was appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal, a position he held for 16 years. Corpus elected him an honorary fellow in 1988, a position he treasured.
Nourse would wear a top hat with his court coat when walking back from the Law Courts to Lincoln’s Inn for lunch long after the fashion had passed for most judges. He had no time for those members of the Bench who interposed themselves in a case, because he believed fundamentally that it was a judge’s job to see that justice was done, and to play his or her part in that process with dignity and correctness.
He did not see it as his job to amend the law, or to draw attention to his judgments – of which he delivered around 2,000, an astonishing record – by using showy language.
When presiding over a case he believed that, if there were no precedent for an intended course of action, it should be scrutinised jealously for any flaw in the argument. He abhorred the “Denning School”, which appeared to him to reject generations of learning and experience. He had a mastery of detail and a knowledge of precedent that were formidable, but an even greater key to his success at the Bar and on the Bench was his clarity of language.
One of his most notable cases was when, after Sir Charles Clore’s death, he had to rule whether the magnate had been domiciled in England for tax purposes. Nourse stated unequivocally that “unless I find evidence which satisfies the conscience of the court or, as it is sometimes put, convincing evidence, that Sir Charles formed a settled intention to reside permanently in Monaco, I must hold that he remained domiciled in England.” The Clore judgment continues to be cited to this day, more than 30 years after Nourse delivered it.
Another reason for Nourse’s popularity at the Bar was his unfailing courtesy and kindness in court. Where some judges would humiliate or rebuke a barrister for not knowing or understanding a point of law, Nourse would take the opportunity to explain, in the manner of a kindly don, the matter at issue. That courtroom manner reflected Nourse’s ease with people from all walks of life and his gift for friendship.
He and his wife Lavinia, née Malim, whom he married in 1972, were gregarious and their Cambridgeshire country house was often filled with friends. Nourse never sought to dominate, and gave the impression that he was much happier to listen than to talk. His wide range of interests and highly developed sense of humour made him an engaging companion.
The turf was always important, and living just outside Newmarket in later life was ideal for him. To give him a further interest in his last years his wife bought him a share in a horse called Peace Prize, which won two of its seven races, including at Newmarket in June 2015, a moment Nourse regarded as a high point in his life.
He also had a passionate interest in cricket, and a love of 17th-century Dutch paintings, which he collected. When younger he had had a passion for Ibsen, seldom missing a production in the West End. He also wrote, but did not publish, verse that revealed a very different aspect to his character to the one that presided in court.
In 2000-1 he served as a highly successful Treasurer of Lincoln’s Inn; he had sat on the Inn’s wine committee and had been partly responsible for laying down some of the superb vintages enjoyed during his year in office.
The following winter, after slipping on ice, Nourse developed a blood clot that would not, despite extensive treatment, disperse. Just when all hope appeared lost he became one of the first people in Britain to undergo a pioneering procedure at Papworth Hospital in which the patient’s blood is taken out, washed and restored. Showing the enormous courage that marked his approach to illnesses towards the end of his life, Nourse made a superb recovery, and continued on the bench until 2006.
He was, for 14 years, chairman of the Lincoln’s Inn Denning Society. He ran it with charm and efficiency, although his gentle manner disguised an unshakeable judgment on important issues, such as the choice of appropriate speakers for annual lecture, on which he held firm views. He gave one of the lectures himself, on Literature and the Law; there was standing room only in the Hall.
After his retirement he served until 2015 as deputy chairman of the Takeover Panel Appeal Board. A series of falls impaired his health in his last two years; but, with the devoted support of his wife, he refused to submit to the predations of old age.
She survives him with their son and daughter.
Sir Martin Nourse, born April 3 1932, died November 28 2017