List of members of Gray's Inn

The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known simply as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court in London. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, an individual must belong to one of these Inns. Having existed for over 600 years, members of Gray's Inn include many noted lawyers and judges, such as Francis Bacon,[1] Baron Slynn, Lord Bingham of Cornhill, Lord Hoffmann and others. Outside the Bar and judiciary of England and Wales, members have included the clergy (including five Archbishops of Canterbury),[2] industrialists like John Wynne, astronomers such as John Lee, media figures, like Huw Thomas,[3] and members of the Bar and judiciary of other nations, such as Yang Ti-liang (former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Hong Kong) and Aitzaz Ahsan (former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan).[4][5] As well as full members, the Inn also offers honorary membership to particularly distinguished members of society. During the Second World War, for example, both Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill became honorary Benchers, and therefore members.[6] Other than honorary members, this list only contains those individuals who were called to the Bar, not those who simply joined but left before qualifying.

Part of Gray's Inn

Lawyers and jurists

Call	Name	Noted for	Notes
1540	Nicholas Barham	Serjeant-at-Law who investigated and prosecuted the Ridolfi plot	[7]
1583	Thomas Ashe	legal writer and qualified barrister, although he never practised the law	[8]
1585	Henry Finch	legal writer	[9]
1674	William Atwood	Lawyer and writer	[10]
1792	John Bell	Considered the best equity barrister of his age, even though he could "neither read, write, walk, nor talk"	[11]
1922	B. R. Ambedkar	Indian polymath, jurist, economist, politician and social reformer and the father of the Indian Constitution	[12]
1937	Jack Hamson	legal writer and jurist of comparative and common law, President of the International Academy of Comparative Law	[13]
1959	Christopher Bathurst	English barrister with a successful practice who became a Queen's Counsel in 1978 before inheriting a hereditary peerage and joining the House of Lords	[14]
1961	Samuel Eson Johnson Ecoma	former Chief Judge of Cross River State, Nigeria.
1967	Aitzaz Ahsan	Pakistani advocate, President of the Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan	[4]
1980	Noor Dean	Fiji Indian lawyer and politician	[15]
1988	Roger Tan Kor Mee	Malaysian advocate & solicitor, former member of the Malaysian Bar Council and now a Water Commissioner of Malaysia.

Judiciary

Call	Name	Noted for	Notes
1342	William Skipwith	Chief Baron of the Exchequer	[16]
1374	William Gascoigne	Chief Justice of the King's Bench	[17]
1420	William Yelverton	Justice of the Court of King's Bench	[18]
1430	Thomas Billing	Chief Justice of the King's Bench	[19]
1438	John Markham	Chief Justice of the King's Bench	[20]
1448	Thomas Bryan	Chief Justice of the Common Pleas	[21]
1455	William Hussey	Chief Justice of the King's Bench	[22]
1461	John Fineux	Chief Justice of the King's Bench	[23]
1535	John Birch	Baron of the Exchequer	[24]
1581	James Altham	Baron of the Exchequer	[24]
1611	Timothy Turner	Chief Justice of Chester	[25]
1614	John Bankes	Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and of the King's Bench	[26]
1616	Thomas Bedingfield	Justice of the Court of Common Pleas	[27]
1625	Thomas Widdrington	Chief Baron of the Exchequer	[28]
1627	John Bradshaw	President of the High Court of Justice for the trial of King Charles I and first Lord President of the Council of State	[29]
1627	John Archer	Justice of the Court of Common Pleas	[30]
1657	John Powell	Justice of the Court of Common Pleas and the Court of King's Bench	[31]
1651	Robert Baldock	Justice of the Court of King's Bench	[32]
1663	John Holt	Lord Chief Justice	[33]
1670	Richard Allibone	Justice of the Court of King's Bench	[31]
1676	Thomas Bury	Chief Baron of the Exchequer	[31]
1729	Thomas Clarke	Master of the Rolls	[34]
1792	John Bayley	Justice of the Court of King's Bench and Baron of the Exhequer	[35]
1827	James Bacon	Vice Chancellor in Bankruptcy and later, by custom, Judge of the High Court of Justice	[36]
1879	John Romilly	Master of the Rolls	[37]
1879	John Ross	Lord Chancellor of Ireland	[38]
1891	James Atkin	Law Lord	[39]
1904	Maas Thajoon Akbar	Justice of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka, Solicitor General of Sri Lanka	[40]
1904	Augustus Uthwatt	Lord Justice of Appeal	[41]
1907	Malcolm Hilbery	Judge of the King's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice	[42]
1919	Gilbert Walter King	Judge of the British Supreme Court for China	[43]
1928	Humphrey Waldock	Justice of the International Court of Justice	[44]
1937	Colin Sleeman	Assistant Judge Advocate General and circuit judge	[45]
1946	Elwyn Jones	Lord Chancellor	[44]
1946	John Vinelott	High Court Judge Chancery Division	[46]
1954	Yang Ti-liang	former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Hong Kong
1959	Gordon Slynn	Lord of Appeal in Ordinary	[47]
1959	Robin Auld	Lord Justice of Appeal	[48]
1960	Anthony Campbell	Lord Justice of Appeal in Northern Ireland	[49]
1961	Mark Potter	President of the Family Division	[50][51]
1966	Richard Banda	Chief Justice of the Malawi High Court, Chief Justice of the Swaziland High Court	[52]
1967	Robin Jacob	Lord Justice of Appeal	[53]
1969	Brenda Hale	President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom	[54]
1970	Michael Hart	Judge of the Chancery Division	[55]
1972	Falak Sher	Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court, Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan	[56]
1973	Dame Joan Sawyer	First female Chief Justice of The Bahamas Supreme Court and then first female President of the Court of Appeal of The Bahamas (retired 2010)
1974	John Sheil	Lord Justice of Appeal in Northern Ireland	[57]

Politicians

Call	Name	Noted for	Notes
1355	Robert Ashton	Lord Chancellor of Ireland, Lord High Treasurer	[58]
1515	Robert Aske	Politician and rebel who led the Pilgrimage of Grace	[59]
1524	Thomas Cromwell	Chief minister to King Henry VIII of England from 1532 to 1540	[60]
1533	Nicholas Bacon	Lord Keeper of the Great Seal	[61]
1552	Christopher Yelverton	Speaker of the House of Commons	[62]
1554	Thomas Snagge	Speaker of the British House of Commons and Attorney-General for Ireland	[63]
1560	John Brograve	Member of Parliament for Preston, Attorney General of the Duchy of Lancaster	[64]
1565	Edward Bacon	Member of Parliament for Great Yarmouth and Tavistock	[65]
1582	Francis Bacon	Politician and statesman who served as Lord Chancellor and Attorney General	[66]
1617	Nathaniel Bacon	Member of Parliament for Ipswich	[67]
1631	John Cooke	Solicitor General	[68]
1644	Levinus Bennet	Member of Parliament for Cambridgeshire	[69]
1648	William Brodrick	Member of the Sealed Knot, Surveyor General of Ireland, Member of Parliament for Dungarvan in the Irish House of Commons	[70]
1658	William Williams	Solicitor General and Speaker of the House of Commons	[71]
1673	Thomas Allen	Lord Mayor of the City of London	[72]
1682	Alexander Pendarves	Member of Parliament for Penryn, Saltash, Helston, and Launceston	[73]
1718	Hugh Williams	Member of Parliament for Anglesey	[74]
1839	George Hammond Whalley	Member of Parliament for Peterborough	[75]
1871	William Bowen Rowlands	Member of Parliament for Ceredigion
1894	F.E. Smith	Lord Chancellor, Secretary of State for India	[76]
1910	Khabeeruddin Ahmed	Member Bengal Legislative Council	[77]
1922	David Maxwell Fyfe	Solicitor General, Attorney General, Lord Chancellor and Home Secretary	[44]
1922	Hartley Shawcross	Attorney General	[78]
1923	Grantley Herbert Adams	Premier of Barbados	[79]
1924	Ba Maw	Prime Minister of Burma	[80]
1933	Leslie Goonewardene	Sri Lankan independence activist and founder of the nation's first political party, the Lanka Sama Samaja Party. Also served in cabinet post.	[81]
1935	Elwyn Jones	Attorney General, Lord Chancellor	[44]
1944	Emrys Roberts	Member of Parliament for Merioneth	[82]
1948	Noor Hassanali	The first Indo-Trinidadian to hold the office of President of Trinidad and Tobago and was the first Muslim Head of State in the Americas	[83]
1951	Glafcos Clerides	Fourth President of the Republic of Cyprus	[84]
1954	Tassos Papadopoulos	Fifth President of the Republic of Cyprus	[84]
1959	John "Tom" Adams	Premier of Barbados	[85]
1959	Lalith Athulathmudali	Sri Lankan Member of Parliament and Minister of Education	[86]
1975	Vera Baird	Solicitor General for England and Wales	[87]

Clergy

Call	Name	Noted for	Notes
1520	William Atwater	Bishop of Lincoln	[2]
1555	Stephen Gardiner	Bishop of Winchester	[2]
1588	Richard Bancroft	Archbishop of Canterbury	[88]
1589	Lancelot Andrewes	Bishop of Winchester	[2]
1592	John Whitgift	Archbishop of Canterbury	[88]
1615	William Laud	Archbishop of Canterbury	[88]
1615	Joseph Hall	Bishop of Exeter	[2]
1622	Thomas Morton	Bishop of Lichfield	[2]
1623	James Ussher	Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland	[2]
1635	William Juxon	Archbishop of Canterbury	[88]
1663	Gilbert Sheldon	Archbishop of Canterbury	[88]

Other

Call	Name	Noted for	Notes
1599	Eubule Thelwall	Principal of Jesus College, Oxford	[89]
1602	Simon Archer	antiquary	[90]
1639	Bartholomew Beale	Auditor of the imprests	[91]
1669	John Wynne	industrialist	[92]
1841	Gilbert Abbott à Beckett	Humorist and police magistrate	[93]
1863	John Lee	Astronomer	[94]
1882	Arthur William à Beckett	Journalist and humorist for Punch	[95]
1905	Gurusaday Dutt	Civilian
1913	Joseph Ball	Intelligence officer with M15 and first Chairman of the Conservative Research Department	[96]
1913	Thomas Williams Phillips	Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Labour	[97]
1929	Sophy Sanger	labour law reformer and internationalist
1951	Huw Thomas	presenter for ITN News	[3]
?	John Finnis	legal academic and philosopher

Honorary members

Call	Name	Noted for	Notes
1590	John Amy	Civil lawyer	[98]
1606	Francis Barrington	Member of Parliament for Essex	[2]
1942	Winston Churchill	Prime Minister of the United Kingdom	[6][99]
1943	Franklin D. Roosevelt	President of the United States	[6][99]
2004	Geoffrey Ma	Chief Justice of the Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong	[6]

See also

• List of members of Lincoln's Inn
• List of members of Middle Temple

References

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Further reading

• Douthwaite, William Ralph (1886). Gray's Inn, Its History & Associations. Reeves and Turner. OCLC 2578698.
• Foster, Joseph (1889). Register of admissions to Gray's Inn, 1521-1889 together with the register of marriages in Gray's Inn Chapel, 1695-1754. Hansard Publishing Union. OCLC 271771277.
• Foss, Edward (1870). A Biographical Dictionary of the Justices of England (1066 - 1870). Spottiswoode and Company.
• Ruda, Richard (2008), A Visitor's Guide to the four Inns of Court in Central London, Washington D.C.: American Inns of Court