Oliver Popplewell

Sir Oliver Bury Popplewell (born 15 August 1927) is a British former judge and cricket player.

He chaired the inquiry into the Bradford City stadium fire, presided over the libel case brought by Jonathan Aitken MP against The Guardian newspaper which eventually led to Aitken's imprisonment for perjury, and was widely reported for asking "What is Linford's lunchbox?"

during a case over which he was presiding, brought by Linford Christie.

He played for Cambridge University from 1949–51 at the time when the Rev David Sheppard was playing for the university, for the MCC in 1953 and for the Free Foresters from 1952–60.

He was awarded a BA degree in 1950 and an LL.B. in 1951.

Popplewell was called to the bar in 1951.

His sole bowling stint was three balls for the MCC against Cambridge University in 1953.

He appointed Queen's Counsel in 1969.

After serving as Recorder of Burton upon Trent and Deputy Chairman of Oxfordshire Quarter Sessions, he was appointed as Recorder of the Crown Court in 1971.

In 1975 he defended his godson Stephen Fry, who was 18 at the time, at his trial for credit card fraud.

Popplewell and his wife had long been friends of Fry's parents.

Stephen Fry writes about the event in his autobiography Moab Is My Washpot.

He was a High Court judge from 1983 until 2003.

During this time, he chaired the Bradford Inquiry into Crowd Control and Safety at Sports Grounds in 1985.

He was a judge of the Employment Appeal Tribunal, vice-chairman of the Parole Board, and a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.

Following the fire at Valley Parade, the Bradford City stadium, on 11 May 1985, Popplewell was chosen to chair an inquiry held under the Safety of Sports Grounds Act 1975.

Following this inquiry, he was chosen to chair a Committee of Inquiry into Crowd Safety at Sports Grounds.

He played first-class cricket for Cambridge University and was president of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) from 1994–1996.

He was president of the MCC from 1994–1996.

In 1999, he donated the papers of the inquiry to the University of Bradford.

A copy of the Committee of Inquiry into Crowd Safety and Control at Sports Grounds' Interim Report is published online in PDF format by the Bradford City Fire website.

He presided over the libel case brought by Jonathan Aitken against The Guardian and Granada Television.

While presiding over the High Court case brought by the athlete Linford Christie against former criminal John McVicar, the editor of Spike Magazine, he was widely reported as asking, "What is Linford's lunchbox?".

He later claimed that this was intended as a joke.

The question was in the tradition of British jurisprudence, in which the judge asks seemingly inane questions relevant to the facts of the case on the assumption that the jury, which cannot ask questions, is ignorant of them.

Following this case, the name "Mr Justice Cocklecarrot" was revived by Private Eye magazine (it was originally the name of a character in the Beachcomber column in the Daily Express) which became the magazine's generic name for unworldly and out-of-touch judges, though Popplewell asserts that this description did not apply to him.

He upheld the defence of Reynolds privilege, established in the House of Lords in Reynolds v Times Newspapers Ltd in 1999, in an action against the Yorkshire Post for reporting that a local karate company was selling "rip-off" lessons.

Since his retirement, Popplewell has spoken up for the right of judges to impose the sentences they see fit.

He had an argument with Home Secretary David Blunkett who was seeking to introduce mandatory minimum sentences for some serious crimes.

He wrote a memoir of his legal career, published in 2003.

Popplewell's father was a civil servant.

He is the father of four sons, the eldest of whom is the former Cambridge University and Somerset cricketer and now solicitor, Nigel Popplewell, and another of whom, Sir Andrew Popplewell, is now a Lord Justice of Appeal.

In 2003, Popplewell became one of the oldest mature students at the University of Oxford when he started reading Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Harris Manchester College.

Popplewell was a right-handed wicket-keeper-batsman, playing 56 innings in 41 matches, scoring 881 runs for an average of 20.46 including two half-centuries.

A widower, Sir Oliver married Dame Elizabeth Gloster in March 2008.

He is the godfather of Stephen Fry.

He is the grandfather of Anna Popplewell and Lulu Popplewell.

Popplewell went to Charterhouse School as a scholar, where he played cricket with Peter May and future politician Jim Prior, and after spending two years of National Service in the Royal Navy, he went to Queens' College, Cambridge as an exhibitioner.

On 19 October 2011 he sparked fury by calling on the Liverpool families involved in the Hillsborough disaster to behave more like the relatives of victims of the Bradford City stadium disaster.

He made the comments in a letter to The Times following the Commons debate on 17 October 2011 calling for all Cabinet papers on Hillsborough to be released.