It is with much regret that we report that Master Hutton (The Rt Hon the Lord Hutton) sadly died on Tuesday 14 July, aged 89. The Inn’s flag will fly at half-mast on Friday, 17 July, in his memory.

Master Hutton was called to the Bar of Northern Ireland in 1954 where he took Silk in 1970, before being called to the Bar of England and Wales by Inner Temple in 1972. From 1979 to 1989, he was a High Court Judge in Northern Ireland during the height of the Troubles. He was elected as an Honorary Bencher of Inner Temple in 1988. In 1989, he became Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland before moving to England where he was appointed Lord of Appeal in Ordinary in 1997. He was consequently granted a life peerage as Baron Hutton, of Bresagh in the County of Down. He is perhaps best known for his chairing of the Hutton Inquiry in 2003, a judicial inquiry to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of Dr David Kelly, a biological warfare expert and former UN weapons inspector in Iraq.

An article on Lord Hutton, published on 16 July 2020, is available on the Irish News website.

Details of any funeral and/or memorial service will be circulated as appropriate in due course.