Alfred Denning, Baron Denning

The Right Honourable The Lord Denning OM PC DL
Master of the Rolls
In office 19 April 1962 – 29 September 1982
Preceded by	The Lord Evershed
Succeeded by	The Lord Donaldson of Lymington
Lord of Appeal in Ordinary
In office 24 April 1957 – 1962
Preceded by	Lord Oaksey
Succeeded by	Lord Evershed
Lord Justice of Appeal
In office 12 October 1948 – 1957
Justice of His Majesty's High Court of Justice (England and Wales)
In office 7 March 1944 – 1948
Personal details
Born	Alfred Thompson Denning 23 January 1899 Whitchurch, Hampshire
Died	5 March 1999 (aged 100) Royal Hampshire County Hospital, Winchester
Nationality	British
Spouse(s)	Mary Harvey (m.1932 – d.1941) Joan Stuart (m.1945 – d.1992)
Children	One son
Alma mater	Magdalen College, Oxford
Profession	Barrister, Judge
Religion	Anglican

Alfred Thompson "Tom" Denning, Baron Denning, OM, PC, DL (23 January 1899 – 5 March 1999) was an English lawyer and judge who has been called "the greatest judge of the century" and "probably the greatest English judge of modern times". Called to the bar in 1923 as a barrister he became a King's Counsel in 1938. Denning became a judge in 1944 with an appointment to the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division of the High Court of Justice and was made a Lord Justice of Appeal in 1948 after less than five years in the High Court. He became a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary in 1957 and after five years in the House of Lords returned to the Court of Appeal as Master of the Rolls in 1962, a position he held for twenty years. In retirement he wrote several books and continued to offer opinions on the state of the common law through his writing and his position in the House of Lords.

Mark Garnett and Richard Weight argue that he was a conservative Christian who "remained popular with morally conservative Britons who were dismayed at the postwar rise in crime and who, like him, believed that the duties of the individual were being forgotten in the clamour for rights....He had a more punitive than redemptive view of criminal justice, as result of which he was a vocal supporter of corporal and capital punishment." Though it must be noted he changed his stance on capital punishment in later life.

He was one of the most publicly known judges thanks to his report on the Profumo Affair. He was noted for his bold judgments running counter to the law at the time. During his 38-year career as a judge he made large changes to the common law, particularly while in the Court of Appeal, and although many of his decisions were overturned by the House of Lords several of them were confirmed by Parliament, which passed statutes in line with his judgments. Although appreciated for his role as 'the people's judge' and his support for the individual, Denning was also controversial for his campaign against the common law principle of precedent, for comments he made regarding the Birmingham Six and Guildford Four and as Master of the Rolls for his conflict with the House of Lords.

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