Frederick Geoffrey Lawrence

Sir Frederick Geoffrey Lawrence (5 April 1902 – 3 February 1967) was a British lawyer, High Court Judge, Chairman of the Bar Council and Chairman of the National Incomes Commission. He first came to prominence when he defended Dr John Bodkin Adams in 1957 on a charge of the murder of Mrs Edith Alice Morrell, the first murder case he handled. Adams, if convicted, might have been hanged, had he also been found guilty on a second murder indictment that had been brought.

Career Before the Second World War Lawrence had built a respected general law practice on the south-eastern circuit. In 1944 he acted as junior to Sir Walter Monckton in a disciplinary hearing against Flight Lieutenant Pensotti, an RAF judge advocate who had been court martialled for interfering with the papers of another court martial in 1943. Lawrence and Monckton effectively turned the hearing into a retrial of the original case (despite the absence of the original witnesses), and the disciplinary hearing took no action against Pensotti, but the original court martial verdict stood. After the war, Pensotti attempted to clear his name and this first brought Lawrence's name to the attention of the press. Time magazine described Lawrence as a "puckish, mousy little man with a mind as orderly as a calculating machine". He first achieved judicial office in 1948 with his appointment as Recorder (a part-time judge) of Tenterden. He was appointed a King's Counsel (KC) in 1950, and in 1951 he was appointed as a member of a Royal Commission investigating the laws on marriage and divorce (Royal Commission on Marriage and Divorce). In 1952 he was appointed Recorder of Canterbury, and in 1953, Chairman of the Court of Quarter Sessions for West Sussex.

In 1957 Lawrence defended John Bodkin Adams and in 1958 he successfully defended Charles Ridge, Chief Constable of Brighton, England, who was charged with conspiracy to obstruct the course of justice by taking bribes. the Commission was dissolved in 1965. He was knighted in the 1963 New Year Honours. In 1964 Lawrence was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Sussex, and chaired the Committee on the Remuneration of Ministers and Members of Parliament (known informally as "the Lawrence Committee").

He was appointed a High Court judge on 30 September 1965, but fell ill not long after. Although it was not obligatory for the defendant to give his or her version of events, and a defendant's legal right to silence had been acknowledged since the turn of the 20th century, when it first became legal for a defendant to give evidence in their defence under oath,

Adams was acquitted after just 44 minutes and the case made Lawrence's reputation.

Personal life In 1941 Lawrence married Marjorie Avice. She survived him and they had no children. In his spare time Lawrence was an accomplished violinist, having played first violin for the orchestra of the Oxford Bach Choir under Sir Hugh Allen.