Geoffrey Cross, Baron Cross of Chelsea

(Arthur) Geoffrey Neale Cross, Baron Cross of Chelsea, PC (1 December 1904 – 4 August 1989) was a British judge.

Cross was born in London, the eldest son of Arthur George Cross and Elizabeth Dalton. His younger brother, Rupert Cross, later became a prominent academic lawyer.

He was educated at Westminster School, where he was a scholar, and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took a First in Classics and won the Craven Scholarship. He was a fellow of Trinity College from 1927 to 1931.^[1]

Cross was called to the bar by the Middle Temple in 1930 and practiced at the Chancery bar. He took silk in 1949. He was Chancellor of Durham between 1959 and 1960.

In 1960, he was appointed to the Chancery Division of High Court, receiving the customary knighthood. He was appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal in 1969, and was sworn into the Privy Council. On 12 March 1971, he was appointed Lord of Appeal in Ordinary and was made a life peer with the title Baron Cross of Chelsea, of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.^[2] He retired as Lord of Appeal in 1975.^[1]

After his retirement, Cross served as the Chairman of the Appeal Committee of the Panel on Takeovers and Mergers between 1976 and 1981.^[1]

Cross was elected a bencher of the Middle Temple in 1958 and an honorary fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge in 1972.^[1]

References

1. Roskill. "Cross, (Arthur) Geoffrey Neale, Baron Cross of Chelsea (1904–1989)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/40087. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
2. The London Gazette: no. 45323. p. 2278. 16 March 1971.