Edward George (Ted) NUGEE Q.C. T.D. [2049]

  General Notes:

The Times.
17 March 2015
Edward Nugee
Barrister who was involved in key cases on tax and pensions and whose name appeared often in the letter pages of The Times.

Edward Nugee was one of the pre-eminent Chancery barristers of his generation and a rarity in that his influence stretched well beyond the chancery bar's narrow confines. He was renowned in the fields of trusts, land law, pensions and tax, but operated extensively outside the law and was an inveterate letter writer to The Times. He regularly pronounced on topics as various as same-sex marriage, Hamas, Richard III and blood alcohol levels.

His views were forthright and unpredictable. In his final published letter in March 2014, responding to an Opinion article about the crisis in Ukraine, he asked "Does no one in the US State Department or the foreign office understand how Russia sees the world?" He was a lifelong supporter of Russia, taking his children to visit, among other things, the wartime cemeteries in Leningrad.

Nugee, always known as Ted never retired - although as a concession to old age he latterly took Wednesdays off - and practised for more than 58 years, the last 37 as a QC, outlasting all his contemporaries to become the most senior Chancery silk in practice. For more than 30 years until 2006, he was head of Wilberforce Chambers, overseeing its growth from a small traditional set into one of the largest of the modern chancery bar.

Nugee played his part in building its reputation appearing in the first cases to reach the House of Lords on rent review, capital transfer tax and commons registration, and for the winning parties in the first two modern pensions cases (Imperial Foods and Courage Group). He also sat as a deputy High Court judge from 1982 to 1997.

Edward George Nugee was born in Surrey in 1928. He went to school first at Brambletye and then at Radley College before winning a scholarship to Worcester College, Oxford, to read classics. He spent two years as a gunner in the Royal Artillery, serving in Singapore during the Malay Emergency. He developed a lifelong taste for Indonesian curries and a preference for wearing sarongs, although usually only in bed.

Going up to Worcester on his return, he realised he had not seen a Latin or Greek text in two years so abandoned classics for law. He left Worcester with a double first and in 1953 was awarded the Eldon Law Scholarship.

In 1955 Nugee was called to the Bar by the Inner Temple and was a pupil at 2 New Square in Lincoln's Inn. That same year he met and married Rachel Makower, who worked as a code breaker at Bletchley Park. The couple moved to Hampstead where they lived throughout their married life. She survives him, along with their four sons - John, a financial consultant, formerly of the Bank of England; Christopher, a High Court judge (who is married to Emily Thornbury, the Labour MP); Andrew, chief executive of a multimedia tour company; and Richard, a Major General in the Army.

Life as a junior chancery barrister in the 1950s was not easy. Nugee soon moved next door, to the chambers of Richard Wilberforce. He and Rachel celebrated each brief with a walnut whip - they had three in the first year. He found time for the Territorial Army and for Lewisham Citizens Advice Bureau, where he gave advice on landlord and tenant issues for 18 years. On taking silk in 1977, he developed a more litigious practice: he was most proud of a capital transfer tax case in which he acted for the Revenue in the House of Lords (IRC v Pearson). The High Court judge and all three judges in the Court of Appeal had held against the Revenue, and in the Lords he faced three days of withering fire from Viscount Dilhorne. Nugee eventually won him round, securing victory by 3 to 2.

His main interest outside work was the church, particularly the Church of England. He wrote on theology and church history: one correspondent who suggested that the Church of England had been founded by Henry VIII and that until then England was a Roman Catholic country, received a detailed, polite but forceful reply on the unbroken continuity of the Church of England from before the Reformation.

The Telegraph.
7 Jan 2015.
Obituaries.
Edward Nugee, who has died aged 86, was a well known and highly respected barrister, practising at the Chancery Bar.
He was called to the Bar by the Inner Temple in 1955; but his practice began at 3 New Square, Lincoln's Inn. Later, it moved address but was well known as Wilberforce Chambers.
He continued to practise until his death, and thus he had the privilege, believed to be unique, of welcoming in 2013 from the Bar his own son, Sir Christopher Nugee, on to the Bench as a High Court Judge (Sir Christopher's wife is the Labour MP Emily Thornberry).
Edward Nugee took silk in 1977. His practice as a junior was mostly advisory work, rather than in Court, and this explains why he became a QC relatively late.
Although his command of all branches of English law was encyclopedic, he specialised in property law including landlord and tenant cases, as well as the law of charities and other trusts, with, of course, capital taxes as well. He also made a speciality of private sector pension cases. In fact the chambers became a dominant force in the field of private pensions.
When he became the head of his chambers, there were only 10 members; but when he retired from that role in 2006 (continuing to practise at the Bar thereafter) there were 45 members including 18 QCs. This growth reflected both his reputation and the increase in pension work.
He was a traditionalist by nature, always wearing a black coat and striped trousers; and he tended to be a fatherly figure in managing the chambers, which he did very effectively. He was popular among colleagues and, being known for common sense and integrity, was made a Bencher of the Inner Temple in 1976 and Treasurer (the most senior position) in 1996.
It was not surprising, given his known ability, that he was in 1967 made a Junior Counsel for the Land Commission. He was from 1968 to 1977 Counsel for Litigation under the Commons Registration Act 1965. He was also Conveyancing Counsel to the Treasury, the Defence Department, the Ministry of Agriculture & Fisheries and the Forestry Commission. These appointments illustrate how highly his advice was rated.
Edward George Nugee was born on August 9 1928 and educated at Radley, having won an open scholarship, and then, after National Service in the Royal Artillery, he went as an exhibitioner up to Worcester College, Oxford, to read Law. He graduated with a First in 1952 and then won the Eldon Law Scholarship in 1953.
Ted Nugee did a great deal of work for the Family Welfare Association, for the London Citizens' Advice Bureau, and as Poor Man's Lawyer in Lewisham. He was a Church Commissioner between 1990 and 2001 and on the Legal Advice Commission of the General Synod dealing with knotty problems of ecclesiastical law.
Closer to his legal practice, he was on the Council of Legal Education Committee from 1967 to 1990 and helped with the work of the Law Commission. Between 1982 and 1997 he often sat as a Deputy High Court Judge in the Chancery Division.
He was, in 1984, appointed chairman of an inquiry into the management problems of privately owned blocks of flats set up by the minister of housing. This resulted in the Landlord and Tenant Act of 1987, but Ted Nugee had nothing to do with the drafting of this Act which Lord Bingham aptly described as "dismal".
Ted Nugee served in the Territorial Army from 1950 to 1964, retiring as a Captain and holding the Territorial Decoration. He was a man of sometimes surprising views - a lifelong supporter of Russia, a defender of Putin and an enthusiast for Henry VIII.
In 1955 he married Rachel Makower who had served at Bletchley Park as a young woman and later on, having joined the Mothers' Union (in 1952) became their worldwide president until 1982.
He is survived by his wife and their four sons.
Edward Nugee, born August 9 1928, died December 30 2014
Ref: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11330904/Edward-Nugee-obituary.html

  Research Notes:

Nugee Foundation
The connection between the Nugee family and Farlington goes back to 1782, when Griffith Richards came as a curate (see the memorial to him on the West wall of St Andrew's Church). He, his son, Edward Tew Richards, and his grandson, Arthur James Richards, served the parish for 143 years. AJ Richards was patron and Rector.
The patron of Farlington used to be Miss Gwendolen Richards, A.J. Richards' daughter, who lived for many years in Leigh Road, Havant, When she died she left the patronage jointly to Dr Leatherdale, Sarah Wynter Bee's father, and to the granddaughter of A.J. Richards. When she died in 1993 the patronage was inherited by her son Edward (known to everyone as Ted).
In 2007 Ted founded a small charity, The Nugee Foundation, and transferred the patronage to the Trustees, himself and his four sons, John, Christopher, Andrew and Richard. On Ted's death on 30th December 2014 his four sons became the remaining trustees of the Nugee Foundation.
John runs his own financial consultancy business, Laburnum Consulting Ltd; Christopher is a High Court judge; Andrew runs a business known as Imagineear, which makes multimedia guides to museums, exhibitions and cities (and much else besides); and Richard is a Major-General, having followed his grandfather into the Royal Artillery: he is currently Defence Services Secretary.
Ref: http://www.farlingtonparish.co.uk/the-nugee-foundation.html

  Other Records

1. Edward and Rachel Nugee's Marriage, 1 Dec 1955, Hampstead London.
L to R: John & Adelaide Makower, Ted Nugee, Rachel Makower, Mary (Brooks) & George Nugee.

2. Edward George Nugee Q.C. T.D.: Retirement from the Territorial Army, 1964.
Edward was presented with an inscribed Tankard
His son John writes 2022 regarding the postnominal, T.D.
With regards to my father, I do know that he did receive the TD (the Territorial Decoration), given I think to those who served in the Territorial Army for 10 years, which he did from 1951 to 1964 - and he was always quite proud of it, so if it can be added as a postnominal for him, that would be good. I don't have any documentary evidence for the award, but what I do have is a tankard his fellow officers gave him on his retirement - see attached photo - and that has his TD on it. And they should know!

"Presented to Capt E.G. Nugee T.D. by the Officers of H.Q. APIS (TA) on his retirement November 1964."

Edward married Rachel Elizabeth MAKOWER [2050] [MRIN: 670], daughter of John Moritz MAKOWER MBE MC [2051] and Adelaide Gertrude FRANKLIN [22250], on 1 Dec 1955 in Hampstead MDX. (Rachel Elizabeth MAKOWER [2050] was born on 15 Aug 1926 in St Pancras London and died on 11 Aug 2015 in Kingston-upon-Thames SRY.)