Baron Henry Hawkins Brampton

Born in Hitchin in 1817, Henry Hawkins trained in the law after growing up in a solicitor’s family and was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1843. He built a successful practice, took silk in 1859, and went on to become a judge of the High Court in 1876.

Known first as Sir Henry Hawkins and later as Baron Brampton, he presided over many prominent criminal trials and developed a reputation as a forceful, sometimes severe presence on the bench. He was raised to the peerage in 1899 and became a well-known public figure in late Victorian legal life.

Readers may also know him through The Reminiscences of Sir Henry Hawkins (Baron Brampton), a memoir published near the end of his life. He died in 1907, leaving behind both a notable judicial career and a vivid personal record of the legal world he inhabited.