Quintin Barry, who has died at the age of 88, was a man of remarkably diverse talent and achievement. Born in Worthing and educated at Eastbourne College, he joined Brighton solicitors Johnson Mileham & Scatliff as an articled clerk in 1953. He became a partner (in the renamed firm, Mileham Scatliff & Allen) in 1962. In 1970, he played a lead role in the firm’s merger with two other Brighton-based firms to form Donne Mileham & Haddock (now DMH Stallard), creating what was then one of the largest regional firms in the country. He served as managing partner until 1988.
During that time, he was involved in establishing Law South, an association of the major law firms in the South and South East, and Law Europe (now LE International), a network of European firms which today includes members from across the world.
As a litigation lawyer, he had a reputation as a brilliant advocate, his erudite style often including literary and historical references, sometimes to the bafflement of magistrates and judges.
Following the introduction of the 1971 Industrial Relations Act, his socialist principles led him to develop a specialism in this field. He soon became one of the country’s leading employment lawyers. Although, instinctively, he was an advocate for employees, his growing reputation meant that he was increasingly in demand by employers. He was retained by a number of national companies. In 1994 he became the chairman of an Industrial Tribunal.
With an avid interest in politics, he stood as Labour parliamentary candidate on four separate occasions: in 1970, against the long-serving Conservative MP Sir Tufton Beamish in Lewes; in the two 1974 elections, against Conservative minister Richard Luce in East Worthing and Shoreham; and against the standing Conservative MP Andrew Bowden in 1979, in Brighton Kemp Town.
In parallel with his legal career, his wide range of interests and the demands for his considerable leadership skills saw him become chairman of Southern Sound radio when launched in 1983, later to become part of Capital Radio.
From 1992 to 2008, he served as chairman of South Downs NHS Trust, and in 1991 he was appointed Deputy Lord Lieutenant of East Sussex.
Away from his professional and public roles, his pastimes were horse racing and military history, with a particular interest in the Franco-Prussian war. For some ten years before his retirement as a partner (he continued to practise as a notary public and employment law consultant until very recently), he had worked on a book on the subject. He published his authoritative, two-volume The Franco-Prussian War 1870-71 in 2007.
His subsequent writing career was extraordinarily prolific, with eighteen further works published on historical subjects, mainly from the 18th and 19th Centuries. Two exceptions were his study of The War in the North Sea, a detailed account of the 1914-18 naval war, and Command of the Sea, covering the Russo-Japanese naval war of 1904-5.
Only one of his books was on a subject other than military history. He drew on his love of horse racing for Lord Derby and his Horses, published in 2014.
In 1959 he married Ann Willcox (divorced 1974) and is survived by her and their children, Sarah, Josephine and Quintin. In 1975 he married Diana Hoad (née Pelling) and is survived by her and his stepchildren, Clara and Kate (his stepson, Oliver, having died in 2013).
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