Roualeyn Cumming-Bruce

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Sir (James) Roualeyn Cumming-Bruce (1912?-2000), known by his second, name was a British judge.

He was the third son of the 6th Baron Thurlow, the younger of twin boys. He was educated at Shrewsbury School and Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he took a first in classics. He became an honorary Fellow at Magdalene in 1977.

He was called to the Bar at Middle Temple in 1937, where he became a Bencher in 1959.

In the Second World War, he served in the Royal Artillery in North Africa and the Middle East, becoming a lieutenant colonel.

He resumed his mixed legal practice after the war. He was Chancellor of the Diocese of Ripon from 1954 to 1957, Recorder of Doncaster from 1957 to 1958 and Recorder of York from 1958 to 1961. He was appointed a junior counsel to the Treasury, in common law, in 1959.

In 1964, he became a High Court judge in 1964, in the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division (later the Family Division) and received the customary knighthood. He presided over some interesting divorce cases: he granted a divorce to the wife of Tony Hancock for cruelty and adultery. He joined the Privy Council in 1971.

Despite a conviction for drunk driving 18 months earlier, he was promoted to the Court of Appeal in 1977. One of his early appeal cases was Miller v. Jackson, in which he joined Lord Denning in ruling that a cricket club could continue to play matches on a village green, even though balls were occasionally hit onto neighbouring properties.

He married Lady Sarah Saville, the youngest daughter of the 6th Earl of Mexborough, in 1955. She predeceased him in 1991. They had a daughter and two sons.

References

[Rootsweb]
[Rootsweb]
[Obituary], The Guardian, 15 June 2000
[Obituary], York Evening Press, 19 June 2000

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