OBITUARY

Southland Times, Issue 25311, 14 June 1935, Page 7

OBITUARY

SIR HORACE AVORY.

DISTINGUISHED JUDGE.

(United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.) (Rec. 12.35 a.m.) London, June 13. The death is announced of Sir Horace Avory.

Sir Horace Edmund Avory, British High Court Judge, was born in August, 1851. His father, a lawyer, was for many years Clerk at the Central Criminal Court of the City of London. Educated at King’s College, London, and Corpus Christi, Cambridge, Sir Horace Avory became a barrister of the Inner Temple in 1875. Although short in stature, of frail appearance and having a weak voice and a hesitating manner, he soon built up a good practice by means of his sound knowledge of law and his skill in handling difficult witnesses. With the reputation thus gained he was appointed a Junior Counsel to the Treasury in 1889 and ten years later a Senior Counsel. In 1901 he became a K.C. He was counsel in many famous cases, a notable instance being his masterly defence of the Duke of Portland’s rights to his estate in the action brought by members of tne Druce family. Knighted and made a judge of the King’s Bench in 1910, he presided over some of the most sensational trials of recent years. He exercised his remarkable astuteness in many murder cases. Never allowing sentiment to obscure justice, he was ruthless in the face of guilt Facts and the law ruled all his decisions. Many a hedging witness was startled into telling tne truth through the judge’s soft voice suddenly breaking into a rasp or a sneer and many a criminal regretted having put into the box a friend whom he considered safe for his defence. It was Sir Horace Avory who tried and sentenced Clarence Hatry and his associates for frauds involving many hundreds of thousands of pounds. The cold logic with which he analysed . Hatty’s defence was typical of his whole ' career. He said that the defence, “stripped of rhetorical language, is nothing more nor less than the threadbare plea of every clerk or servant who robs his master.” i