Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, Baroness Butler-Sloss

English judge (born 1933)

Ann Elizabeth Oldfield Butler-Sloss, Baroness Butler-Sloss GBE PC (née Havers; born 10 August 1933), is an English judge. She was the first female Lord Justice of Appeal and, until 2004, was the highest-ranking female judge in the United Kingdom.


The Baroness Butler-Sloss

President of the Family Division
of the High Court of Justice
In office
1999 – April 2005
Succeeded bySir Mark Potter
Lord Justice of Appeal
In office
1988–1999
High Court judge
(Family Division) 3458
In office
1979–1988
Personal details
Born
Ann Elizabeth Oldfield Havers

(1933-08-10) 10 August 1933 (age 90)[1]
Buckinghamshire, England
NationalityBritish
Spouse(s)Joseph William Alexander Butler-Sloss (m. 1958)
RelationsSir Cecil Havers (father)
Lord Havers (brother)
Nigel Havers (nephew)
Philip Havers (nephew)
ChildrenFrances (b. 1959)
Robert (b. 1962)
William (1967–2018)

She was made a dame (DBE) on appointment to the High Court in 1979, and was sworn in to the Privy Council in 1988 when she became the first woman to be appointed to the Court of Appeal. When she retired as a judge in 2005, she was awarded Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE). In 2006, the government announced that she would be awarded a life peerage as Baroness Butler-Sloss. She sits as a independent peer in the House of Lords.

Until June 2007, she chaired the inquests into the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi Fayed.[2]

References change

  1. Mosley, Charles, ed. (2003). Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knighthood (107 ed.). Burke's Peerage & Gentry. p. 617. ISBN 0-9711966-2-1.
  2. Dyer, Clare (11 November 2004). "The Guardian profile: Elizabeth Butler-Sloss". Retrieved 23 June 2017 – via The Guardian.

Other websites change