I am writing in support of Jennifer Hailey and David Henson regarding the lack of necessity for a university degree. I too never went to university. I started what should have been five years’ articles in 1939 aged 16, but after three years I was called up to the army, where I served for six years. The Law Society excused me from having to do my further two years of articles because of my war service.
I left the army in 1948 and a year later sat the Society’s Final and Honours Exams (they were separate exams then). I gained the Sheffield Prize for the best candidate in the final and Broderip Prize for the best paper on real property and conveyancing for all the honours exams in 1949.
I am now 93 and have not retired. I am still very busy in full-time practice as a solicitor at Portsmouth and Newport, Isle of Wight.
John Gurney-Champion, Gurney-Champion & Co, Portsmouth
