BABINGTON, Anthony (Patrick) 1920-2004

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born April 4, 1920, in Monkstown, Cork, Ireland; died May 10, 2004, in London, England. Attorney, judge, and author. Babington was an attorney and circuit court judge who also wrote nonfiction works and autobiographies. An early life marked by hardship included the death of his father when he was ten. This tragedy left little money for an education at a prestigious university, so he attended Reading School, where he proved an excellent rugby player. World War II led Babington to join the Royal Ulster Rifles, but he was soon transferred to the Dorset Regiment, where he became a major. Not long after D-Day, Babington was so seriously injured in battle that he was at first mistaken for dead. Fortunately, just barely alive, he underwent several operations that saved his life, though he was left with an inability to move one arm and would have difficulty speaking for the rest of his life. Despite this, Babington was determined to achieve his dream to become an attorney. Called to the Bar of London in 1948, he worked in the South Eastern Circuit Court, becoming prosecuting counsel to the post office in 1959. From 1964 to 1972 he was metropolitan stipendiary magistrate, and from 1972 to 1987 he served as circuit judge; he was also appointed a bencher of the Middle Temple in 1977 and an honorary bencher of King's Inn, Dublin, in 1995. Babington was a liberal at heart, an idealistic bent demonstrated both on the bench and in his writings, most notably in his For the Sake of Example: Capital Courts-Martial, 1914-1920 (1983) in which he sympathetically writes on the behalf of soldiers shot for cowardice during World War I. He similarly wrote from the point of view of the terrified soldier in 1997's Shell-Shock: A History of the Changing Attitudes to War Neurosis. Other books by Babington include The Power of Silence: A History of Punishment in Britain (1969), The English Bastille: A History of Newgate Gaol and Prison Conditions in Britain, 1188-1902 (1971), and The Devil to Pay: The Mutiny of the Connaught Rangers, India, July, 1920 (1991). He also wrote two memoirs: No Memorial (1954) and An Uncertain Voyage (2000). A member of PEN International and English PEN, Babington was known for championing the freedom of expression.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Daily Telegraph (London, England), May 25, 2004.

Guardian (London, England), May 19, 2004, p. 25.

Independent (London, England), June 22, 2004, p. 34.

Times (London, England), May 17, 2004, p. 24.