Michael Fox

Sir Michael John Fox (8 October 1921 – 9 April 2007) was a British barrister and judge. He was a High Court judge from 1975 to 1981 and a Lord Justice of Appeal from 1981 until 1992.

Early life and education Fox's parents were Catholics, his father from Dublin and his mother from Killarney. By the time of Michael's birth, they had moved to Hanwell, West London. His father was an administrator in a railway company. Michael was the youngest of four siblings. In 1930, an older brother died in a shooting accident, and his father died a month later. He attended Drayton Manor School, Hanwell.

He later enrolled in the London School of Economics (LSE) to read law, but his studies were interrupted by the war. His poor eyesight prevented him from joining the armed forces during the Second World War, and worked in intelligence in the Admiralty from 1942 to 1945.

Instead of continuing at the LSE, he applied to read jurisprudence at Magdalen College, Oxford, after the war, gaining a second-class degree in 1947 and then the Bachelor of Civil Law in 1948. He was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1949. He joined the chambers of Cyril Radcliffe at 3 New Square, as a pupil of John Sparrow (later Warden of All Souls College, Oxford).