His Honour Quentin Edwards QC, 1925-2010
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ECCLESIASTICAL LAW JOURNAL 255
His Honour Quentin Edwards QC, 1925-2010
CHRISTOPHER HILL
Chairman, Ecclestiastical Law Society
Bishop of Guildford
It is always sad to mark the passing of a predecessor in an office which one
holds, but it is particularly so in the case of Quentin Edwards, whose chairman-
ship of the Ecclesiastical Law Society spanned some of its most energetic and
productive years. Quentin was a character. Always immaculately dressed, a stick-
ler for propriety and good manners, he was quixotic, urbane and wickedly
amusing. His trademark whiskers, flamboyant rings, scarves and monocle
made him instantly recognisable, not least at racecourses where he was a fre-
quent and knowledgeable attender, but he was also a distinguished ecclesiastical
lawyer, conscientious diocesan chancellor, respected Circuit Judge and dedicated
lay reader.
Born in Alexandria, Egypt in 1925, son of a shipbroker, Quentin's exotic child-
hood was cut short by a move to England to board at Hastings and thereafter
Bradfield College. While in the sixth form, he met Sir John Mortimer QC
(then a youthful undergraduate) on a trip to Oxford University, who conceived
a short-lived infatuation for him, evidenced by rather passionate correspon-
dence, an episode only made public many years later in the pages of Valerie
Grove's biography of Mortimer. Following an abrupt departure from his
school, Quentin worked on a farm and in a factory before enlisting in the
Royal Navy in 1943, seeing service in Scapa Flow. Demobbed in 1946, he was
called to the Bar in 1948 and was married the following day. His wife Barbara
died some four years ago. They had two sons and a daughter.
Having taken silk in 1975, Quentin was appointed to the Circuit Bench and sat
in Westminster, Bloomsbury, Marylebone and latterly the Central London
County Court in Regent's Crescent. Occasionally irascible, particularly with ill-
prepared or indolent counsel, he ran a disciplined court and became particularly
adept in jury trials concerning civil actions against the police. He was Chancellor
of the Dioceses of Blackburn and Chichester. Amongst other achievements in
his ecclesiastical practice at the Bar, Quentin was junior counsel for the defen-
dant priest in the notorious case of Bland v Archdeacon of Cheltenham,' led by
Geoffrey Howe QC, with Hugh Forbes QC and Sheila Cameron for the promo-
ter. He also contributed to an earlier volume of Halsbury's Laws of England on the
subject of ecclesiastical law.
[1972] Fain 157.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/ecclej13&div=48&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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His Honour Quentin Edwards QC, 1925-2010
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