His Honour Peter Goldstone, one of the first solicitors to rise to the bench, has died at the age of 86.

An obituary in The Times today notes that Goldstone was the first solicitor from private practice to be invited to sit as an inner London stipendiary magistrate. In 1972 he was one of the first group of solicitors to be appointed a recorder. To resolve the new question of what to wear in court, he opted for a solicitor’s gown with a barrister’s wig. 

Peter Goldstone was born in Manchester in 1926, and on leaving grammar school saw wartime service in the Fleet Air Arm. Without the means to achieve his first ambition of becoming a barrister, he joined his brother’s solicitor’s practice and was admitted in 1951. He was a Liberal councillor on Manchester City council before being appointed to the bench in London, becoming a circuit judge in 1978. From 1994 to 1997 he was designated care judge at Watford. 

 

 

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