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Wednesday 27 July 2022

Herry's Journal Index

Sunday 21 November 2021

Giles Wingate-Saul 1945 - 2021

Gules Wingate-Saul (right) with Julian Avery, John Collard and Richard Smith. Anglesea Arms, London 2026 Photo by Herry.

Giles Wingate Wingate-Saul was a friend from my schooldays when we were contemporaries at Winchester. We subsequently attended university together and for our last year at Southampton (where we both read law) we shared a cottage with Julian Avery (3rd from the left) on the edge of the New Forest outside Romsey.

Julian, John, Richard, Giles and Herry at Blue Hayes in 2011

At university and subsequently we were both members of the 'Gentleman of Wessex' cricket team, and we met at cricket matches and events such as the reunion organised by Julian Avery at the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1995. We both retired in 2006, but the both attended the reunion organised by tbe Law Faculty in 2007 where Giles was called upon to reply on behalf of the students.

Southampton Law Faculty Reunion 2007 - with Giles, Julian, John, Richard and others including some of tbe professors.

I think it was at that event that we determined to have an annual reunion consisting of Giles, Julian, John Collard and me, and later Richard Smith. Thereafter we met annually in London or in Hampshire for lunch or dinner, often at one of the London Clubs (Julian was a member of Boodles). I also began to see Giles on other occasions as he came down from Cumbria to visit his daughter Lucinda, who was working as a doctor at Winchester Hospital. He came to stay at Old Swan House on occasion and we enjoyed long discussions, having similar views on life and the world. He also came with me to Litchfield, and amazed the congregation with his beautiful baritone voice. I hope we would always be able to meet, but that was not to be, as Giles fell ill in about 2017 and was unwell until he died in September 2021

At Gile's Thanksgiving Service in his home village of Rusland on a friend, David Allan QC gave a fine eulogy that appears here:

'I met and got to know Giles in the mid 1970s, not through meeting in Court or in chambers but through Giles being the organiser and captain of the Manchester Bar football team. A team that under Giles’s captaincy played regularly and met with much success. Giles was a solid centre back but if the truth be told he was a little susceptible to the high ball. As a high ball came towards him it was not unknown to hear a cry from Giles “over” and as the ball sailed over his head that was the signal for Giles’s fellow centre back to provide some rapid cover. Those who played for that team got enormous enjoyment from doing so and are grateful to Giles for creating and running the team.

Giles’s school was Winchester College, his university was Southampton where he read law . Giles was rather dismissive of his achievements as a student. I have chatted to Herry Lawford who was at school and university with Giles. Herry is here today. What Herry emphasised was not so much Giles’s academic abilities but the value of his friendship which lasted a lifetime. Giles was a loyal and entertaining friend, he was a great storyteller.

Giles was called to the Bar in 1967 and joined Royal Exchange chambers in Manchester. He rapidly developed a very busy civil practice but was never too busy to help a fellow member of chambers. A few days ago I bumped into Keith Armitage who was also a member of Royal Exchange. Giles was some 2 or 3 years senior to Keith and when Keith was a pupil and in his second six months and so able to appear in Court it happened that late one day he received instructions to go to Warrington County Court on an undefended divorce. The petitioner was seeking a divorce on the grounds of adultery. This caused Keith some consternation Not because of the adultery but the prospect of the journey to Warrington. There was no M56 or M62 to take you to the wilds of Warrington. So Keith approached Giles and suggested that Giles might like to take over this weighty undefended divorce. Giles’s response was to say no this is your case and you must do it but I will drive you to Warrington County Court and I will drive you back again to Manchester. Giles did just that. Keith got his lift but sadly did not get his divorce. Undefended it may have been but he could not prove adultery. What struck me on hearing this story from some 50 years ago how like Giles and how he never changed. Kindness and doing the right thing were so much a part of his character.

I forgot to ask Keith what car Giles was driving. Was it his splendid and beloved Lotus.

Giles’s abilities as a barrister, his talent and hard work were recognised and he achieved silk in 1983 becoming a Queen’s Counsel just after his 38^th birthday, an unusually young age to achieve . He joined Byrom Street Chambers in Manchester and London. The head of Chambers was Ben Hytner. Taking silk at the same time as Giles and joining Byrom Street with him was Giles’s friend David Clarke. I’m reminded of David’s description of Giles: intellectually principled, rigorous, focused but also warm in friendship and very good company.

As a silk Giles was always in demand. He combined meticulous preparation and fine judgment with an unerring grasp of legal principle. Giles was the master at drilling down into a case to reveal its key points. His practice covered both claims for catastrophic injury and weighty commercial matters. When acting for a claimant if the defendant was not prepared to pay the value of the case as assessed by Giles then he was always ready to fight the case. In Court he was a formidable presence. He advanced his arguments cogently and forcefully.

You’ll know that Giles had a strong sense of fairness. In the conduct of his cases at whatever level whatever the eminence of the tribunal Giles would stand up to what he saw as an unfair approach. He felt his nemesis was a particular law lord of brilliant intellect but with a tendency to make up his mind before coming into court. I know you are thinking that couldn’t possibly happen but it did. And then displaying a reluctance to listen to the argument he had already in his own mind rejected. This infuriated Giles.

What gave Giles great satisfaction was to receive instructions in an unpromising case and then having mastered the detail, analysed the issues he would fashion an argument that provided the route to success. This was never better illustrated than in the environmental asbestos case Margereson where the citizens of Armley Leeds were subjected through the 1930s, 40s and 50s to an asbestos factory pumping out asbestos dust into their homes, into the school yard and onto the loading bays where the children played. During 6 weeks of evidence and argument I was privileged to watch Giles construct an unanswerable case. His dedication to the case was total.

I had the good fortune to be led by Giles many times. It was an education. Those of us who shared chambers with Giles benefited enormously from his wise advice.

Giles’s energies were not confined to the conduct of his own cases. Giles was the founding Chairman of the Northern Circuit Commercial Bar Association. He was always keen to assist law students and young members of the Bar and he did that through his role as a Bencher of the Inner Temple.

Giles retired from the Bar aged 60. He had been a deputy High Court Judge and a Deputy Judge of the Technology and Construction Court. He could undoubtedly have become a High Court Judge and given the combination of his first class legal mind and his humanity he would have been a fine judge. But he and Katherine had agreed many years ago that he would retire at 60 and he never wavered from that decision.

Despite the demands of work and family Giles found time to assist certain charities whose work he regarded as important. He was a trustee for some 20 years of Spirit, the charity for those sustaining spinal cord injury, and he was also a trustee of the Bendrigg Trust based in Cumbria which provides outside adventure activities for the disabled and disadvantaged.

At the Bar Giles was regarded with huge respect and admiration. This was in part due to his abilities as a barrister but also in part because of the person he was. There was nobody else quite like him. He was no follower of popular fashion. He never owned a television. He was very much his own man- a singular man and he was fortunate to meet a singular woman in Katherine and unsurprisingly they produced two wonderful children in Lucinda and Rupert. He was immensely proud of both of them. I’ll finish with some words written by his lifelong friend Herry Lawford:

“A lovely, kind man and a generous friend; the kind you hope to grow old with”

GILES WINGATE-SAUL Called to the Bar November 1967 (Inner Temple). Practice as barrister 1967-1983. General Common Law work from chambers in Manchester (mainly civil). Queen’s Counsel (QC) Appointed April 1983. Practice as Queen’s Counsel 1983-2005 from chambers in Manchester and London. Areas of work - catastrophic personal injury (brain damage and spinal injury)\, Mercantile/Commercial/ and Construction. Mediator (trained by CEDR) Arbitrator Retired 31st July 2005 Appointments. Deputy High Court Judge (ceased July 2005) Deputy Judge of Technology and Construction Court (ceased July 2005). Governing Bencher of the Inner Temple. Specialist Bar Associations (until 2005) Personal Injury Bar Association. Northern Circuit Commercial Bar Association (Founding chairman and chairman 1996-2002). Professional Negligence Bar Association.Technology and Construction Bar Association. Society of Construction Law. Bar European Group. European Circuit.

Divided time between the Lake District and Manchester. Governing Bencher of the Inner Temple. Trustee of SPIRIT (spinal injury charity based on Midland Spinal Injury Centre. Oswestry) Trustee of Bendrigg Trust (residential activities for disabled young people. Founding Trustee/Administrator of Rusland Valley Community Trust. Churchwarden / Treasurer Rusland Church, Cumbria.Vice-chairman Rusland Show. Treasurer Rusland Reading Room Member Carlisle Diocesan Synod. Deputy groundsman Leven Valley Cricket Club. Cricket/tennis

Family: wife Kathrine (died 2015) Daughter Lucinda attended Leeds University and is now a doctor at Royal County Hospital, Winchester, married to Tom with a son. Son Rupert was at Cambridge (Engineering) and is marrying Laura in Rusland.

Photos from the Thanksgiving Service can be seen here

For some more photos of Giles though the years, click here

Thursday 7 October 2021

The Church Closers' Charter and Other Attacks on the CofE Churches

Following the closure of all C of E churches (ie not Catholic ones) in March 2020 because of the pandemic, many people became very disillusioned and particularly with the church hierarchy. Not only was the complete closure of churches for so long thought unnecessary, but noone seemed either to be in charge or supporting the immense mount of pastoral work that was being done as a consequence of the lockdowns. Furthermore, it seemed that the long-running battle to stop the church from abandoning the traditional rural parishes in favour of evangelical city churches was being lost..

The issues were well aired by Giles Fraser in a piece in UnHerd in July 2021 'The Church is Abandoning its Flock.'

Since then, further sinister moves have been made, more particularly with the publication of a 'Consultation on 'A Mission Revision' Paper GS2222'. This seemingly innocuous piece of bureaucracy could further strip the rural parishes of their churches and vicarages. This document has been analysed by Emma Thompson in the Spectator in September 2021 in an article that names GS2222 'The Church Closers' Charter'.

Many objections to the 'charter' have been raised and below is one that captures the points that most of us would make.

This consultation has to be seen in the context of a widescale (universal?) belief that our beloved Church currently, and patently, lacks meaningful leadership and a coherent message for our own congregations, let alone the general populace. During the recent Covid crisis, our Church performed very badly and deeply upset many hitherto committed Christians. Sadly it mirrors the labour Party in being out of touch with its own supporters

Recent reorganisations of rural parishes have reduced the number of clergy (while not reducing the Parish Share!) to the point of ineffectiveness. The C of E seems determined to continue down this process gradual decline. The focus on inner cities and church plantations is welcome and commendable but should not be at the expense of traditional rural parishes, which remain the heartland of the Anglican Church and the financial ‘bread-basket’ of the dioceses. At the moment, It is all so negative and defeatist. As a previous Diocesan Chairman of Finance, I have absolutely no doubt that most parishes are capable of producing significantly increased with better fundraising and determined leadership. This in turn would fund a new breed of more able and enthusiastic clergy and reset the Church on an upward spiral of growth, which our country as a whole desperately needs.

My fundamental objection to GS2222 is that these proposals are designed to facilitate the process of decline and, if implemented, a further, and possible fatal collapse, will be precipitated. Your rural congregations cry out for positive leadership and the vision of an expanding church and not one in perpetual and terminal decline.

No satisfactory response has been received to these points.

Wednesday 2 June 2021

The Bishop of Winchester 'Steps Back' - 'Dakingate' 2021

Announcement by the Suffragan Bishop of Southampton. Deborah Sellin in May 2021

Dear Friends,

I wanted to contact you all directly with an important update. Bishop Tim has today informed me that he will be stepping back from his role as Bishop of Winchester for the next six weeks, so that he can focus on discussions about future leadership and governance reform in the Diocese. I fully support his decision. Bishop Tim and Lambeth Palace have requested that, over this period, I temporarily take responsibility for the Diocese and I shall be working with the team at Wolvesey to ensure full continuity.

I realise that, even before today’s news, this has been an enormously challenging 15 months for us all as a diocese and as a church - as it has been for the entire country. On behalf of Bishop Tim and the team, I wanted to thank you once again for all you have been doing for your parishes and your communities, in such trying circumstances. As the country begins to emerge tentatively from the long shadow of COVID-19, our anticipation continues to be tempered by necessary caution. We will, of course, continue to be led by Government and National Church of England guidance, so that we can all stay as safe as possible.

Finally, during these next weeks, every Monday morning at 9am from 24th May, I will be offering Diocesan Prayer on Zoom, with the exception of the Bank Holiday. You are very welcome to join me if you would like to do so, and further details will be circulated in due course.

With my prayers for you all,

Bishop Debbie

This anodyne announcement has been followed by much more specific accusations;

https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2021/21-may/news/uk/bishop-of-winchester-steps-back-after-diocesan-rebellion

https://archbishopcranmer.com/was-tim-dakin-made-bishop-of-winchester-without-being-validly-ordained-priest/

https://ashenden.org/2021/06/25/quis-custodiet-ipsos-custodes-how-will-the-church-of-england-rid-itself-of-its-bullying-crisis/

Finally, her resigns.

Bishop Tim’s video message to the Diocese can be viewed here. The text of the message is below.

Dear Friends

I have now received confirmation that Her Majesty the Queen has accepted my retirement as Bishop of Winchester. I wanted you all to hear my decision as directly as possible – and doing it this way rather speaks to our times. Some formalities and details need to be finalized but I’ll be leaving the Diocese in early February and handing over my responsibilities to others in the meantime. Please pray for all involved in this transition process.

Mahatma Gandhi said that “unity to be real must stand the severest strain without breaking.” I have always been clear that, as your Bishop, I should be there to build and foster togetherness across our Diocese, focused upon our life together in Christ, and upon our joint mission to serve Christ in our communities and to sustain Christian witness in daily life. Sadly, it seems it is no longer possible for me to fulfil this role.

The last eighteen months have brought enormous pressures to bear on us all, individually, as a country, within our families and communities, and as a Diocese. The painfully difficult financial decisions made over the last year have caused real anguish. In trying to secure a sustainable future for the growth of the Diocese, it is clear that I’ve not done enough to acknowledge what we have lost in this process. To those I’ve hurt or let down, I am sorry.

I realise that the steps taken to stabilize the finances continue to cause upset. Bishop’s Council has received full reports in recent weeks from the Diocesan auditors and legal advisers, explaining and corroborating the decisions made by the Diocesan Board of Finance. None of this makes those decisions any easier to take. Nevertheless, I hope there is some comfort in the clarity now provided, and that faith can be restored in the relevant Diocesan staff and functions as the pastoral reorganisations proceed. Please continue to pray for all those involved. Pray too for all serving in the parishes and various projects: that the church and its witness may grow in the Diocese.

I could not have come to my decision, or indeed found a way through this recent period, without the love and support of Sally, my children and close friends. While I have not seen much of what has been said about me, my family and friends have seen more, and I have seen the effect it has had on them. They are the people who know me best, of course – and I’ve drawn upon their love and their view of me during these difficult times.

It has been a privilege to serve a Diocese that has Companion links across the world. I’ve been reminded of previous ministry experience: of the need to live on other people’s terms to see the world they see and to know the Christ they follow. I hope these links will continue to grow in strength and in significance. It’s also been a great joy to be part of a Diocese where education is taken seriously at all levels, not least, Further & Higher Education. All of us are called to pray and witness in such a way that the coming generations will find fullness of life in Christ.

I will remain proud of what has been achieved across the Diocese over the past 10 years. For there to have been a record number of ordinands at the Cathedral recently is a wonderful achievement for those involved in the School of Mission and in the parishes. I believe each and every one of our new clergy – and the many lay people who’ve received the Bishop’s Commission for Mission – will have a valuable role to play in the next stage of the Diocese as it witnesses to Christ’s mission in this region, in the life of the nation and across the Anglican Communion. The new national strategy for the Church of England offers an inspirational trajectory for such future developments.

As for me and Sally, we are planning a move to Plymouth, and we’re looking forward to making new friends, as well as to visits from old friends and from our growing family. Thank you for all we have shared. We will miss you. God bless you.

+Timothy Winton

Bishop Debbie is made 'Acting Bishop of Winchester'

That's all for now folks!

Wednesday 27 July 2022

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