I recently read an obituary to Tim Dutton CBE, KC, who died in June at the age of 68. He was a very distinguished barrister and a past Chairman of the Bar. When he was 5 years old, he began boarding as a chorister at Durham Cathedral and later attended Repton School in Derbyshire. When he was 17, he spent a month in hospital having lost several stone in weight and was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. From that time on Tim’s motto was “treat every day as if it were your last.” He graduated from Keble College Oxford in 1978 and was called to the Bar in 1979 establishing a mixed civil and criminal practice.

One day in 1983 he arrived at Bow Street magistrates’ court to find he had forgotten his wig. A pupil at his chambers, Sappho Dias – whose family had fled persecution by the Burmese junta – was promptly dispatched to take it to him but made no attempt to hide her annoyance: “I’m here to do pupillage,” she told him, “not to wait on you.” Later they began courting and were married in 1987. Sappho opened Tim’s eyes to the discrimination and prejudice at the Bar, and he did much to promote equality both in his day-to-day work and later as a leader of the profession. He and Sappho founded the Burma Justice Committee to work on re-establishing the rule of law in Burma.

Tim was appointed CBE in 2016. The “Dutton Criteria” for good advocacy – clarity and conciseness, persuasiveness, legal and factual analysis, and ethical conduct – remain the standards by which junior barristers are assessed across all the Inns at the English Bar. Someone wrote about Tim’s character: “A man of uncompromising principle, Tim brought an extraordinary warmth, humanity and understanding to his dealings with all people. Solicitors and clients sought him out because he was an advocate of the first order. His juniors loved working with him because he never let the work, however demanding, get in the way of being a decent human being. To his opponents in court, he was formidable but unfailingly courteous and fair.”

In 2014 Tim was diagnosed with motor neurone disease and told that he would require a walking stick by Christmas, be in a wheelchair by Easter and be dead within three years. He drew on his deep Christian faith and a determination to make the most of the time that remained to him. Strengthened by his immense courage and unfailingly optimistic nature, he continued to practise at the highest level for more than a decade after that, retiring only in January 2025 when he finally lost the use of his limbs. His was a life well-lived and a testimony to the faithfulness of God especially when faced with great personal adversity.