FAMOUS JUDGE RESIGNS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19672, 14 December 1933, Page 2

FAMOUS JUDGE RESIGNS

HIGH-SPEED DIVORCE. OVER 11,000 SUITS TRIED. For many years one of the most distinguished personalities on the British judicial Bench, Lord Merrivale, has resigned his position as President of the Probate. Divorce and Admiralty Division of the High Court of Justice His successor has been appointed in Sir Frank Boyd Merriman, K.C., M.P.. the Solicitor-General. Lord Merrivale is 78, and has been President of the Divorce Division since 1919. It is estimated that he has tried over 11,000 divorce suits. The celerity with which he has gone about hi duties earned for him the nick-name of the high-speed judge. Thirty-five ■ undefended divorce cases were an easy , day’s work for him, and he frequently finished his daily task in time to relieve brother judges. His average time for the hearing of an undefended case was six minutes. The record for high-speed divorce is held by Lord Merrivale. This was a petition in which he heard the evidence of two witnesses and granted a ciecrec nisi to a woman petitioner. It took exactly two minutes. An expert knowledge of shorthand, which he invariably | used to take notes, is said to be the i j secret of his expedition in disposing of I j cases. One of the most famous Ad- ; ! miralty cases which came under his I jurisdiction was that in which he | awarded £22.685 as prize bounty lo 1 Admirals Jellicoe and Beatty for the part they played in the battle of Jutland. Lord Merrivale is one of the many distinguished men who entered the legal profession by way of journalism. The son of a Dartmoor granite quartv manager, he was called to the Bar at Gray’s Inn in 1885, after serving as a reporter in the Press Gallery of the House of Commons. He took silk In 1899. Since barrister days he has been j famed for his deep, strong and melocl- j ! ious voice. He once used it for 18 j I hours as counsel in an appeal arising out of the Titanic disaster. He was ! formerly Sir Henry Edward Duke, and > was created a peer in 1925. He beI came a member of Parliament for Plymouth In 1900. and later sat for eight years for the Exeter division.