Tom Denning, Baron Denning

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Denning was born on 23 January 1899 in Whitchurch, Hampshire, to Charles Denning, a draper, and his wife Clara. He was one of six children. He began school at the National School of Whitchurch and won a scholarship to Andover Grammar School, where he excelled academically, winning four prizes for English essays. He taught himself mathematics after schoolmasters left for the First World War. He sat the Oxbridge examination at 16 and was awarded a £30 a year exhibition to study mathematics at Magdalen College, Oxford. He matriculated in 1916 after teaching himself Greek. He obtained a First in Mathematical Moderations in June 1917. He enlisted on 14 August 1917 as a cadet in the Hampshire Regiment and was temporarily commissioned as a second lieutenant on 17 November 1917. In March 1918 his unit was sent to France, where under continuous shell fire for three months, a unit under his command built a bridge over the River Ancre. He fell ill with influenza and was in hospital for the last few days of the war. He summed up his war service in four words: 'I did my bit'. His oldest brother, Captain John Edward Newdigate Denning, was killed near Gueudecourt on 26 September 1916, and his brother Sub-Lieutenant Charles Gordon Denning died of tuberculosis on 24 May 1918. Denning returned to Magdalen in 1919, graduated in 1920 with a first in Mathematical Greats, and taught mathematics at Winchester College for £350 a year. He returned to Magdalen to study Jurisprudence in October 1921, financed by the Eldon Law Scholarship worth £100 a year. He took his final examinations in June 1922 and impressed the examiner by correctly answering questions on the Law of Property Act given Royal Assent only days before. He was called to the Bar on 13 June 1923.

Reader's Guide

Denning's significance comes from his 38-year career as a judge, during which he made large changes to the common law, particularly while in the Court of Appeal. Although some of his decisions were overturned by the House of Lords, several were confirmed by Parliament, which passed statutes in line with his judgments. He was known as 'the people's judge' for his support of the individual and his flexible attitude to the common law principle of precedent. His report on the Profumo affair made him one of the highest profile judges in England. He was a conservative Christian who 'remained popular with morally conservative Britons who were dismayed at the postwar rise in crime and who, like him, believed that the duties of the individual were being forgotten in the clamour for rights. He had a more punitive than redemptive view of criminal justice, as a result of which he was a vocal supporter of corporal and capital punishment.' However, he changed his stance on capital punishment in later life. He commented controversially about the Birmingham Six and Guildford Four. Margaret Thatcher said he was 'probably the greatest English judge of modern times', and Lord Bingham called him 'the best known and best loved judge in our history'. His appellate work in the Court of Appeal did not concern criminal law.

Did You Know?

• Denning was born two months early and was so small he could fit in a pint pot, earning the nickname 'Tom Thumb'.
• He taught himself Greek to pass the Oxford entrance exam because it was not taught at his school.
• He wrote his first article for the Law Quarterly Review in 1925 on the decision in Scott v Pattison.
• His brother Reginald Denning became a staff officer with the British Army, and his brother Norman Denning became Director of Naval Intelligence.
• Denning summed up his World War I service in just four words: 'I did my bit'.