| Honorific-Prefix: | The Right Honourable | ||||||||
| The Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe | |||||||||
| Office: | Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom | ||||||||
| Term Start: | 1 October 2009 | ||||||||
| Term End: | 17 March 2013 | ||||||||
| Predecessor: | Position created | ||||||||
| Successor: | Lord Toulson | ||||||||
| Nominator: | Jack Straw | ||||||||
| Appointer: | Elizabeth II | ||||||||
| Office2: | Lord of Appeal in Ordinary | ||||||||
| Term Start2: | 1 October 2002 | ||||||||
| Term End2: | 30 September 2009 | ||||||||
| Predecessor2: | The Lord Slynn of Hadley | ||||||||
| Successor2: | Position abolished | ||||||||
| Office3: | Lord Justice of Appeal | ||||||||
| Term Start3: | 1997 | ||||||||
| Term End3: | 2002 | ||||||||
| Office4: | High Court Judge | ||||||||
| Term Start4: | 1994 | ||||||||
| Term End4: | 1997 | ||||||||
| Office5: | Non-Permanent Judge of the Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong | ||||||||
| Term Start5: | 1 March 2009 | ||||||||
| Term End5: | 16 November 2023 | ||||||||
| Appointer5: | Donald Tsang | ||||||||
| Birth Date: | 1938 3, df=y | ||||||||
| Birthname: | Robert Walker | ||||||||
| Nationality: | British | ||||||||
| Residence: | London and Essex | ||||||||
| Alma Mater: | Trinity College, Cambridge | ||||||||
| Occupation: | Judge | ||||||||
| Profession: | Barrister | ||||||||
| Module: |
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Robert Walker, Baron Walker of Gestingthorpe,, (17 March 1938 – 16 November 2023) was a British barrister and Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. He served as a Non-Permanent Judge of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal between 2009 and 2023.[1]
Walker sat in the House of Lords as a crossbencher until his retirement from the House on 17 March 2021.[2]
Robert Walker was born on 17 March 1938, as the son of Ronald Robert Antony Walker by his wife Mary Helen Welsh. He was educated at Downside School and Trinity College, Cambridge from where he graduated in 1959 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Classics and Law. He was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1960 and became a Queen's Counsel in 1982.
In 2010 he was the Treasurer of Lincoln's Inn.
Walker was an Honorary Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.
Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe served on the Honorary Editorial Board of the Warwick Student Law Review from its inception in 2010.
In 1994, Walker was appointed a High Court Judge in the Chancery Division, and as is customary was then made a Knight Bachelor, before appointment as a Lord Justice of Appeal in 1997. He succeeded Lord Slynn of Hadley GBE as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary in 2002 and was created a Life Peer as Baron Walker of Gestingthorpe, of Gestingthorpe in the County of Essex.[3] He and nine other Lords of Appeal in Ordinary became Justices of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom upon its inauguration on 1 October 2009.
Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe married Suzanne Diana Leggi in 1962. They had one son (Robert, born 1963) and three daughters (Penelope Mary, born 1966; Julian Diana, born 1968; and Henrietta Solveig, born 1972). He died on 16 November 2023, at the age of 85.[4]
| Escutcheon: | Argent on a chevron between three dragons’ heads couped sable three crescents Or. |
| Crest: | Out flames Or a dragon’s head sable gorged with an ancient crown Or. |
| Supporters: | On either side an ostrich reguardant Proper the head neck legs and grasping in the beak an ear of wheat slipped and leaved Or. |
| Bage: | Two ostrichs' heads addorsed the becks looped and conjoined in base in each beak an ear of wheat slipped and leaved. |
| Torse: | Argent and Sable. |
| Lambrequin: | Sable doubled Argent. |
| Motto: | Mentem Mortalia Tangunt[5] [6] |