OBIT FOR HHJ MICHAEL ARGYLE
His Honour Major Michael Argyle, QC, MC, a circuit
judge from 1970 to 1988, died on January 4 aged 83. He
was born on August 31, 1915.
judge from 1970 to 1988, died on January 4 aged 83. He
was born on August 31, 1915.
The TIMES online.
FOR ALL the colourful controversy that frequently
surrounded him, Michael Argyle was at heart a plain man's
judge. He said what he thought, even if it did sometimes
attract accusations of prejudice and once earned him a
reprimand from the then Lord Chancellor, Lord Havers.
Judges are frequently criticised for being remote from
everyday life. Michael Argyle was all too often heavily
involved in it, remembered by staff at the Central Criminal
Court for his daily patronage of the bookmaker's shop
outside the court and for his insistence on always having a
television set in his robing room in order to keep abreast of
sports, especially those on which money was riding. He
owned and bred racehorses, was a chess and amateur
boxing fan and a breeder of whippets. However, he never
learnt one crucial lesson of the ring and was always ready to
lead with his chin.
He was a gift to newspapers which loved to reprint the
remarks for which he became famous. He freed one woman,
saying: "You have caught me on a good day because I
became a grandfather this morning." He told a black
defendant accused of assault: "Get out and go back to
Jamaica." A sex attacker was told: "You come from Derby,
which is my part of the country. Now off you go. And don't
come before my court again." Any real consistency would be
difficult to find in his sentencing, except that he did what was
within his power to deter crime. He observed in 1987:
"Quite simply law and order do not exist in this country at
present."
Educated at Shardlow Hall, Derbyshire, Westminster School
and Trinity College, Cambridge, he served in the Second
World War in India, the Middle East and Italy with the 7th
Queen's Own Hussars. He won an immediate Military Cross
for organising a tank crossing of the Po. He had been called
to the Bar by Lincoln's Inn, in 1938, becoming a bencher in
1967 and treasurer in 1984. He resumed his practice in
1947 on the Midland Circuit. He first came to public
attention when he defended Ronald Biggs in the Great Train
Robbery trial, but in a spontaneous gesture of generosity he
later sent a cheque to the Driver Jack Mills appeal fund. He
was later still to put up a personal reward of £100 for
information leading to the arrest of muggers who attacked a
woman usher at the Central Criminal Court.
Argyle became Recorder of Northampton from 1962 to
1965 and then of Birmingham from 1965 to 1970. He was
never afraid to admit that he needed more knowledge and
went to night school, run by Loughborough University, to
learn more about penology. Later he attended a 15-shilling
course on drug addiction. He was all for spreading
knowledge around and launched an experiment in citizenship
with teenagers sitting beside him, though they took no part in
cases. He was ahead of his time in wanting a proper place
for victims in the criminal justice system, calling in 1965 for
reports on them before passing sentence.
Some of his views were what one would expect from a
former Conservative candidate, who stood unsuccessfully in
Belper in 1950 and in Loughborough in 1955. He put into
practice his belief that tougher sentencing could deter crime.
As a result of his offensive in Birmingham against telephone
vandals, jailing them for up to three years, he claimed a
virtual cessation of offences involving kiosks and the
restoration of effectively a 100 per cent call-box service in
the city. He then threatened life imprisonment for burglars.
The Court of Criminal Appeal was said to have called for a
transcript of his remarks. However, in the next fortnight
reported crime in Birmingham was stated to have fallen by
40 per cent.
Appointed an occasional judge of the Central Criminal Court
in 1970, he relinquished his recordership of Birmingham, and
found himself in the headlines over the Oz trial. He imposed
prison sentences, subsequently quashed, on the three
editors of the magazine in 1971. Police guarded his home
after an anonymous bomb threat. The New Law Journal
said the sentences on the three editors were "indefensibly
severe".
Yet it was impossible to pigeonhole him: he was too
maverick to be regarded as a safe member of the
Establishment. He won a reputation for trying to find work
for unemployed defendants and earned himself the title of
"the jobhunters' judge".
He tangled with the Establishment once too often, though,
when he made a speech to law students in Nottingham which
he evidently thought would not be reported. He said judges
should be empowered to impose death sentences in cases
carrying penalties of more than 15 years, and suggested that
there were more than five million illegal immigrants in Britain.
Lord Havers, the Lord Chancellor, severely reprimanded
him in July 1987 and in October Argyle announced that he
would retire the following July.
He was proud of his membership of the Carlton, Cavalry
and Guards, and Kennel Clubs. He was Master of the
Worshipful Company of Makers of Playing Cards from
1984 to 1985.
His wife, Ann, predeceased him; he is survived by their three
daughters.
surrounded him, Michael Argyle was at heart a plain man's
judge. He said what he thought, even if it did sometimes
attract accusations of prejudice and once earned him a
reprimand from the then Lord Chancellor, Lord Havers.
Judges are frequently criticised for being remote from
everyday life. Michael Argyle was all too often heavily
involved in it, remembered by staff at the Central Criminal
Court for his daily patronage of the bookmaker's shop
outside the court and for his insistence on always having a
television set in his robing room in order to keep abreast of
sports, especially those on which money was riding. He
owned and bred racehorses, was a chess and amateur
boxing fan and a breeder of whippets. However, he never
learnt one crucial lesson of the ring and was always ready to
lead with his chin.
He was a gift to newspapers which loved to reprint the
remarks for which he became famous. He freed one woman,
saying: "You have caught me on a good day because I
became a grandfather this morning." He told a black
defendant accused of assault: "Get out and go back to
Jamaica." A sex attacker was told: "You come from Derby,
which is my part of the country. Now off you go. And don't
come before my court again." Any real consistency would be
difficult to find in his sentencing, except that he did what was
within his power to deter crime. He observed in 1987:
"Quite simply law and order do not exist in this country at
present."
Educated at Shardlow Hall, Derbyshire, Westminster School
and Trinity College, Cambridge, he served in the Second
World War in India, the Middle East and Italy with the 7th
Queen's Own Hussars. He won an immediate Military Cross
for organising a tank crossing of the Po. He had been called
to the Bar by Lincoln's Inn, in 1938, becoming a bencher in
1967 and treasurer in 1984. He resumed his practice in
1947 on the Midland Circuit. He first came to public
attention when he defended Ronald Biggs in the Great Train
Robbery trial, but in a spontaneous gesture of generosity he
later sent a cheque to the Driver Jack Mills appeal fund. He
was later still to put up a personal reward of £100 for
information leading to the arrest of muggers who attacked a
woman usher at the Central Criminal Court.
Argyle became Recorder of Northampton from 1962 to
1965 and then of Birmingham from 1965 to 1970. He was
never afraid to admit that he needed more knowledge and
went to night school, run by Loughborough University, to
learn more about penology. Later he attended a 15-shilling
course on drug addiction. He was all for spreading
knowledge around and launched an experiment in citizenship
with teenagers sitting beside him, though they took no part in
cases. He was ahead of his time in wanting a proper place
for victims in the criminal justice system, calling in 1965 for
reports on them before passing sentence.
Some of his views were what one would expect from a
former Conservative candidate, who stood unsuccessfully in
Belper in 1950 and in Loughborough in 1955. He put into
practice his belief that tougher sentencing could deter crime.
As a result of his offensive in Birmingham against telephone
vandals, jailing them for up to three years, he claimed a
virtual cessation of offences involving kiosks and the
restoration of effectively a 100 per cent call-box service in
the city. He then threatened life imprisonment for burglars.
The Court of Criminal Appeal was said to have called for a
transcript of his remarks. However, in the next fortnight
reported crime in Birmingham was stated to have fallen by
40 per cent.
Appointed an occasional judge of the Central Criminal Court
in 1970, he relinquished his recordership of Birmingham, and
found himself in the headlines over the Oz trial. He imposed
prison sentences, subsequently quashed, on the three
editors of the magazine in 1971. Police guarded his home
after an anonymous bomb threat. The New Law Journal
said the sentences on the three editors were "indefensibly
severe".
Yet it was impossible to pigeonhole him: he was too
maverick to be regarded as a safe member of the
Establishment. He won a reputation for trying to find work
for unemployed defendants and earned himself the title of
"the jobhunters' judge".
He tangled with the Establishment once too often, though,
when he made a speech to law students in Nottingham which
he evidently thought would not be reported. He said judges
should be empowered to impose death sentences in cases
carrying penalties of more than 15 years, and suggested that
there were more than five million illegal immigrants in Britain.
Lord Havers, the Lord Chancellor, severely reprimanded
him in July 1987 and in October Argyle announced that he
would retire the following July.
He was proud of his membership of the Carlton, Cavalry
and Guards, and Kennel Clubs. He was Master of the
Worshipful Company of Makers of Playing Cards from
1984 to 1985.
His wife, Ann, predeceased him; he is survived by their three
daughters.
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