Celebrate the LIVES
The Right Honourable Sir David Keene PC
15 April 1941–18 August 2026
Master Keene was called to the Bar by the Inn in 1964 and took silk in 1980. He was appointed a Recorder in 1989. He practised mainly in public law cases and at planning inquiries. In his career as a barrister, he obtained planning permission for a number of large developments, including London City Airport, and the second runway at Manchester Airport. In 1993, he became a Deputy High Court Judge, and in 1994 was appointed a Judge of the High Court of Justice (Queen’s Bench Division), also sitting in the Employment Appeal Tribunal from 1995 to 2000. In 2000, he was elevated to the Court of Appeal as a Lord Justice of Appeal, serving until his retirement in 2009.
Alongside his judicial career, he served as Chairman of the Judicial Studies Board from 2003 to 2007, Deputy President of the Qatar International Court from 2011 to 2013, and Chairman of the Qatar Financial Centre Regulatory Tribunal from 2013 to 2019. He was elected a Bencher of the Inn in 1987 and served as Treasurer in 2006.
His year in office saw the retirement of Brigadier Peter Little CBE, the appointment of Patrick Maddams Hon FRIBA as Sub-Treasurer, and an active period of engagement for the Inn during the debates surrounding the draft Legal Services Bill. To mark his Treasurership, he generously presented a red oak and a magnolia to the Inner Temple Garden. The Inn’s flag was flown at half-mast in his memory on Wednesday 2 September.
At the time of going to print, a fuller biography of Master Keene, past Treasurer, was not available.
James Peter Hymers Mackay,
Baron Mackay of Clashfern KT PC FRSE KC
2 July 1927–7 July 2026
Master Mackay studied mathematics at the University of Edinburgh and Trinity College, Cambridge, before lecturing in the subject at the University of St Andrews. He subsequently turned to law, graduating from Edinburgh University, and was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1955. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel (Scotland) in 1965 and built a practice particularly in tax law. He served as Sheriff Principal of Renfrew and Argyll, Vice-Dean and then Dean of the Faculty of Advocates, before being appointed Lord Advocate of Scotland in 1979, the same year he was appointed a Life Peer. He went on to serve as a Senator of the College of Justice in Scotland and as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, before serving as Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain from 1987 to 1997, becoming one of the longest-serving Lord Chancellors.
His career in public service and academic governance included serving as Chancellor of Heriot-Watt University, Commissary of the University of Cambridge, Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and Lord Clerk Register of Scotland and Keeper of the Signet from 2007 to 2022. He also served as Editor-in-Chief of Halsbury’s Laws of England from 1998 to 2015. He was appointed a Knight of the Order of the Thistle in 1997.
Master Mackay was elected an Honorary Bencher of the Inn in 1979. He was a Trustee of the Pegasus Trust when it was first established by Master Goff and was a long-term resident of 5 Paper Buildings.
Perhaps the best-documented Inner Temple occasion involving Master Mackay occurred immediately after he was unexpectedly appointed Lord Chancellor in October 1987. A dinner had already been arranged by the Inn to honour his predecessor, Sir Michael Havers. When Master Havers was forced to resign through ill health and Margaret Thatcher appointed Master Mackay instead, in consultation with Master Havers the Bench decided to proceed with the dinner. Master Mackay later recounted: “…the menu had been printed the week before and it simply said the dinner was given by the Benchers of the Inner Temple in honour of ‘the Lord Chancellor’ without further specification – so it proved to be in honour of us both.” He also recorded that Master Havers made “the most generous speech” welcoming him despite having himself lost the office only days earlier (wssociety.co.uk/features/2016/6/6/from-the-highlands-to-high-office).
On leaving his flat in the Inn in 2022, Master Mackay donated an Elizabeth II silver dish engraved with the Mackay coat-of-arms and motto ‘Justitia Populi’. The dish had been presented to Master Mackay when Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain to commemorate the official opening of Nottingham Magistrates’ Court on 3 May 1995.
Patrick Ground KC
9 August 1932–7 April 2026
Master Ground was called to the Bar by the Inn on 9 February 1960 and took silk in 1981. He specialised in planning law. He served as a councillor for the London Borough of Hammersmith from 1968 to 1971, representing the Parson’s Green ward. Master Ground served a Conservative Member of Parliament for Feltham and Heston from 1983 to 1992.
He was elected a Governing Bencher of the Inn in 1987.
Master Ground was a regular attender at Benchers’ Nights. He and his wife Caroline were parents of four children and grandparents of nine.
His Honour James Wadsworth KC
9 September 1940–17 February 2026
Master Wadsworth was called to the Bar by the Inn in 1963 and took silk in 1981. He became a Deputy Circuit Judge in 1977 and a Recorder in 1980. In 1999, he sat as a Deputy High Court Judge and, in the same year, took up the role of fee-paid legal member of the Restricted Patients Panel. In 2000, he was elevated to the office of Circuit Judge, serving until his retirement on 7 September 2010. Alongside his judicial duties, he served as a fee-paid legal member of the Mental Health Review Tribunal from 2004.
He was elected a Bencher of the Inn in 1988
Sir Sydney Lipworth KC
13 May 193–27 June 2025
Master Lipworth was called to the South African Bar in 1956 and to the Bar of England and Wales in 1991. He practised at One Essex Court, chaired the Bar Association for Commerce, Finance and Industry, and served as chairman of the Monopolies and Mergers Commission. He was also a successful businessman, philanthropist, and supporter of the arts, including the Philharmonia Orchestra Trust and the Royal Academy of Arts.
Master Lipman was elected a Governing Bencher of the Inn in 1989.
Professor Sir Royston Goode CBE KC FBA
6 April 1933–24 June 2026
Master Goode was admitted as a solicitor in 1955 and was called to the Bar by the Inn in 1988. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1990. He spent 17 years in private practice as a solicitor before turning to academia. His academic career included roles at Queen Mary University of London, as Professor of Law, Dean of the Faculty of Laws, and founder of the Centre for Commercial Law Studies. From 1990 to 1998, he served as the Norton Rose Professor of English Law at Oxford University and a Fellow of St John’s College, Oxford, later becoming an Emeritus Fellow.
His public service appointments included, among others, chairing the Pension Law Review Committee and serving as a member of both the Crowther Committee on Consumer Credit and the Monopolies and Mergers Commission. He also held key leadership roles as Chairman of the Executive Committee of JUSTICE and as a member of the Governing Council of UNIDROIT. He was awarded the OBE in 1972, followed by the CBE in 1994, before being knighted for services to academic law in 2000.
Master Goode was elected an Honorary Bencher of the Inn in 1992.
Anthony Hacking KC
12 January 1941–8 November 2025
Master Hacking was educated at Warwick School and Lincoln College, Oxford, where he took an MA in Jurisprudence. He was called to the Bar by the Inner Temple in 1965 and took silk in 1983. He served as a Recorder from 1985 to 2006 and as a Deputy High Court Judge in the Queen’s Bench Division from 1993 to 2001. He was Head of Chambers at 1 King’s Bench Walk from 1999 to 2005.
Master Hacking was elected a Bencher of the Inn on 5 August 1993.
The Right Honourable
Sir Kenneth Keith ONZ KBE PC KC
19 November 1937–3 May 2026
Master Keith was admitted to the New Zealand Bar in 1961 and took silk in 1994. He was a leading authority on international and constitutional law. He taught in Victoria University’s Faculty of Law from 1966 to 1991, rising to full Professor in 1974 and serving as Dean from 1977 to 1981. He served on New Zealand’s High Court and Court of Appeal from 1996, and was one of five inaugural judges appointed to New Zealand’s Supreme Court in 2004. He was the first and remains the only New Zealander to serve as a judge on the International Court of Justice, where he sat from 2006 for nine years. He also sat on the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.
He was elected a Governing Bencher of the Inn in 2007.
The Reverend Hugh Mead
11 January 1939–14 August 2026
Master Mead was a Lightfoot Scholar in Ecclesiastical History in 1961. He was awarded a Bachelor of Letters in Theology at Oxford in 1966. He was Senior History Master at Karachi Grammar School in 1964 and 1965, before joining St Paul’s School, London, where he taught from 1966 to 1997. At St Paul’s, he was successively Head of History and, following his ordination in 1980, Chaplain and Head of Religious Studies. He published a history of St Paul’s School in 1990 and was also the founder of St Paul’s Croquet Club.
From 1985 to 2009, Master Mead officiated at the Chapel Royal as Priest and Deputy Priest in Ordinary to The Queen. He served as Reader of the Temple from 1995 to 2015, during which time he regularly took Thursday Holy Communion services and provided invaluable support to the Master of the Temple. He was elected an Honorary Bencher of the Inn upon his retirement in 2015.