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FEATURE
A Supreme Justice
David Kitchin (Sc 72) tells barrister Lance Ashworth (G 82) how he became the first OO to be appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court
On a Tuesday in mid-April, Philip Sloan (LS 71) and I headed to the Supreme
Court to interview David Kitchin (Sc 72) for this august magazine. Parliament Square was blocked off by the Extinction Rebellion demonstrators and directly outside the main entrance to the Supreme Court was their ‘Induction Centre’. Having negotiated our way past these obstacles (satisfying them that two middle-aged men in OO ties were unlikely to be ready to be inducted!), we entered the calm of the lobby of the former Middlesex Guildhall.
We enjoyed a tour of the Supreme Court, including its three courts and the wonderful library, before being taken up to David’s retiring room, a very modern space with none of the fustiness that one might be expected to associate with a judge of the very highest court in the United Kingdom.
Lord Kitchin, as he is formally known, was appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court on 1st October 2018, becoming the first intellectual property specialist to be appointed to
the Supreme Court. David is the first OO to be appointed as a Justice of the Supreme Court and only the second OO to make it to the very top, the only other one being the late Michael Mustill, who was appointed as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary to sit in the House of Lords in 1992.
David was born in 1955 in Sudborough, near Thrapston, and brought up there. His father was a member of Oundle Golf Club and through that connection got to know quite a few of the masters, including Dick Chignell. He decided to send David and his older brother, Alan (C 71), to board at Oundle. This allowed David the luxury of being able to cycle the eight miles home through Stoke Doyle and Wadenhoe on a Sunday for tea while other boys were left to the delights of a Sunday afternoon at the School, long before the days that the Coffee Tavern or Beans opened on a Sunday.
While his brother was despatched to a field House, David, who arrived in Oundle as one of a handful of academic scholars, was placed under the ‘light touch’ House-
mastering of Mike Mills in School House, where the resident tutor was Mr Veale. At the time, the Head was Barry Trapnell.
David had what might be thought of as a fairly typical time at Oundle, enjoying sport mainly at a House level, the School House bar up the dangerous ladder (before the infamous line was added to divert beer directly from the bar to one of the Talbot studies!) and getting on with work. His most memorable early experience was one which we are forbidden from recounting (and no one in their right mind is going to go against the instructions of a Justice of the Supreme Court!).
However, as he entered the Sixth Form, life at Oundle began to take on a different hue. While he played a bit of golf (not then a formal School sport), he found his place as cox of the 1st VIII in his final year under the guidance of Vic Northwood. Among those in his boat was David Reddaway (B 71), who went on to become the High Commissioner to Canada and the Ambassador to Turkey. Academically, he was very
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THE OLD OUNDELIAN 2018 –2019