The Rt Hon Sir Stephen Brown GBE died on 30 September, aged 100.

Master Brown served as a Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve from 1943 to 1946 and was called to the Bar by The Inner Temple in 1949, took silk in 1966 and became a Recorder in 1965. He was appointed a Judge of the High Court, Family Division in 1975 before transferring to the Queen’s Bench Division in 1977. He was appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal in 1983 and served as President of the Family Division from 1988 until his retirement in 1999. He was knighted in 1975, made a Privy Counsellor in 1983 and appointed GBE in 1999. He also held honorary doctorates from Birmingham, Leicester and the University of the West of England, was an Honorary Fellow of Queens’ College, Cambridge, and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. In 2015 he was appointed a Chevalier of the Légion d’Honneur.

Master Brown was elected a Bencher of the Inn in 1974 and served as Treasurer in 1994, the year when the Inn opened the Littleton Building and completed an extensive five-year programme of reconstruction and maintenance around the estate. The year also marked the opening of the Lawson Room as an adjunct to the Library; the room was refurbished through the generosity of the widow of Master Charles Lawson and used to provide students with an additional place to study at weekends. On the occasion of his 100th birthday in 2024, a card was sent to Master Brown from the Treasurer on behalf of the Inn to mark this significant milestone.

The Inn’s flag will fly at half-mast in his memory on Monday 6 October 2025. Further details of any funerals and/or memorial services will follow in due course as appropriate.