John Brightman, Baron Brightman

John Anson Brightman, Baron Brightman, QC (20 June 1911 – 6 February 2006) was an English Chancery barrister and judge, ultimately of the House of Lords.

Brightman was the son of a country solicitor. He was educated at Marlborough College and St John's College, Cambridge. He was called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1932.

During the Second World War, he was an able seaman in the Merchant Navy from 1939 to 1940, then joined the RNVR as a commissioned officer. By 1944, he had attended the Royal Naval staff course at Greenwich and was promoted to Lieutenant Commander to become assistant naval attaché in Ankara. He returned to the Bar in 1946, practising mainly in tax law, taking silk in 1961, and was pupil master to Margaret Thatcher.

He was appointed a High Court judge in 1970 and assigned to the Chancery Division, also receiving the usual knighthood. In 1971, he joined John Donaldson, Baron Donaldson and Lord Thomson as the three judges of the National Industrial Relations Court (NIRC), set up by the government of Ted Heath to reign in the power of the trades unions.

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