Nigel Bridge, Baron Bridge of Harwich

Nigel Cyprian Bridge, Baron Bridge of Harwich, PC (26 February 1917 − 20 November 2007) was a British judge, who served as Lord of Appeal in Ordinary between 1980 and 1992. A leading appellate judge, Bridge is also remembered for having presided over the Birmingham Six trial.

Early life Bridge was born in Codicote, Hertfordshire, the second son of Commander Cyprian Dunscomb Charles Bridge, Royal Navy, and of Gladys Bridge, née Steel, the daughter of a Lancashire cotton manufacturer. He never met his father, who had abandoned his mother shortly after his birth. He was the younger brother of Tony Bridge, later Dean of Guildford.

He followed his elder brother to Marlborough College, with a scholarship. Disliking the school, he went to Europe, where he learned French and German. Returning to Britain, he worked as a journalist on regional newspapers in Lancashire, and wrote an unpublished novel.

He volunteered to join the Fleet Air Arm before the Second World War broke out, but was rejected as being colour blind. He lost his voice during the summing up, which was criticised as being biased against the defendants. He also admitted into evidence the defendants' confessions, despite the defence arguing that they were beaten out of them. During sentencing, he said that there was "the clearest and most overwhelming evidence I have ever heard in a case of murder". On his appointment, he was the only law lord without a university degree.

He was a member of the Security Commission from 1977 and 1985, serving as chairman from 1982. In that capacity, he reported on the Geoffrey Prime and Michael Bettaney spying cases; he also led a review in vetting arrangements for Buckingham Palace staff. In 1985, Bridge was tasked with reviewing telephone tapping by MI5; after he examined 6,129 instances of phone tapping in three days and found all of them to be justified, he was attacked by Roy Jenkins in The Times as "the poodle of the executive". However, he joined Lord Oliver of Aylmerton in dissenting from the majority decision in the Spycatcher case, criticising the government's case to prevent publication of the contents of Peter Wright's book as "ridiculous".

He supported the majority decision in the Gillick case on medical consent in 1985, and in the McLoughlin v O'Brian case on recovery of damages for nervous shock.

He was elected an honorary fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge in 1989.

He served as Chairman of the Ecclesiastical Committee in Parliament.

Later life Bridge retired from the bench on reaching the compulsory retirement age of 75 in 1992. He was chairman of the Church of England Synodical Government Review from 1993–97. In retirement, he studied mathematics with the Open University, obtained a Bachelor of Science in 2003, aged 86.

Toward the end of his life he suffered a number of strokes. He died of cancer in London on 20 November 2007.

Family Bridge married Margaret Swinbank, then a secretary at the War Office and the daughter of Leonard Heseltine Swinbank, on 8 January 1944. They had two daughters and one son. Lady Bridge of Harwich died in 2006.

Selected cases

Borden (UK) Ltd v Scottish Timber Products Ltd Ch 25 McLoughlin v O'Brian 1 AC 410 Attorney-General v Guardian Newspapers Ltd 1 WLR 1248 (the Spycatcher case) Wilsher v Essex Area Health Authority AC 1074 R v Secretary of State for Transport, Ex p Factortame Ltd 2 AC 85 (Factortame I) Caparo Industries plc v Dickman 2 AC 605 Abbey National Building Society v Cann 1 AC 56 Lloyds Bank plc v Rosset 1 AC 107 Murphy v Brentwood District Council 1 AC 398 Alcock v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police 1 AC 310 Ruxley Electronics & Construction Ltd v Forsyth AC 344

Arms