FAMOUS JUDGE'S DEATH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20496, 22 February 1930, Page 2 (Supplement)

FAMOUS JUDGE'S DEATH.

MURDER TRIALS RECALLED.

STORY OF BOYISH PRANK.

CAT'S OBITUARY NOTICE,

The death occurred recently in London of Sir Montague Shearman, formerly a Judge of the King's Bench Division of tho High Court, who retired last October owing to ill-health, against which he had struggled for years. , Sir Montague, who was 72 years old, conducted many famous murder trials during his 15 years on the Bench. None aroused so much interest as. the trial ' of Mrs. Thompson antj Bywaters at tho Old Bailey in December, 1922, for the murder of the woman's husband atTlford.

In the course of his summing up lie said:—

" The courts of justice in this country arc open to the public, and it is right that the public should be admitted. But it is inevitable that you (the jury) have been surrounded by a different atmosphere than prevails during the ordinary humdrum of the courts. This charge, however, is an ordinary common charge / of a wife and an adulterer murdering a husband. That is the charge. I am not saying whether it is true or no ■He was amazed, Sir. Montague continued, when lie heard it suggested that never before in the history of crime had anyone been charged with a murder .when he was not the person who took a,, hand in inflicting the blow. Mrs. Thompson, whose amazing letters to Bywaters urging him to murder her Imband were read at the trial, was indicted as an accessory. These cases, said Mr. Justice Shearman, were not uncommon. History was full of cases in which husbands, in Order to marry someone else, wanted to get rid of their wives, and wives, for a similar purpose, to get rid of their husbands. Sir Montague Shearman, who was the soil of a solicitor, was in his.youth noted for his high spirits. While at Merchants Taylors' School, he had an uncle named Catty/"who was chief clerk at the Guildhall. One day the Guildhall cat died, and the young scapegrace sent an advertisement "to the Times announcing the death of "M. Cat, of the Guildhall." The next morning there were many inquiries at the Guildhall, on the assumption that the advertisement contained a misprint. Young Shearman had an exciting interview with his uncle" when ho next saw him. l Among tho more important trials wlr.ch Sir Montague conducted as a judge was the trial of Harold Greenwood, who was acquitted of the charge of murdering hi 3 wife by poison at Kidwelty in 1920. He also sentenced the two murderers of Sir Henry Wilson, and delivered the. judgment* of the Court of Appeal, dismissing the appeal of Vaquier, the Irenchman, sentenced to death for 1 the murder of Mr. Jones, the landlord of. the Blue Anchor Inn at Byfleet, Surrey.; Although firm in his judgments, Sir Montague was not harsh. On one .occasion, wishing to deliver a -little homily, he waited until the woman, an official of an Irish organisation found guilty . of being in possession Of bombs, had left the dock, when he said: " These are observations which I think it fitting to make, but I did not feel it my dutv ' to hurl them at a_ prisoner who could not reply to them." _ _ Sir Montague shared with Lord Darling the distinction of being able on occasions to dispense with an interpreter. In 1927 he conducted an important commercial case in French, and the only time he faltered was over the word ' firm, for .which, ho said, he could not find a. satisf&ctoiy French equivalent. ~ '*• * The late judge was very severe with motorists charged with causing accidents bv reckless driving; • " The-state of things." he once said at the Devon Assizes, "is getting appalling. The professional driver is carefu: and kindly; it i« the individual driving a, car not an business, who is.reckless. r