We talk about what makes a great person. This got me thinking. Do they say that about lawyers? I would like to think, so but in reality we do tend to get a bad press. However if you ask a random selection of members of the public who have had dealings with lawyers they will almost certainly give a very different story. Surveys have shown that the public regard their solicitor to be trustworthy reliable honest and efficient. Many solicitors are in fact doing far more than serving their clients. Not only by serving as councillors, being school governors and being members of many of the wonderful service organisations in the world including Rotary and The lions. In my club alone the Rotary Club of Birkenhead six of our members are lawyers.
My story doesn’t end there. I have also had dealings with two very special lawyers who in my eyes were” local heroes” and should be acknowledged for their very generous acts of kindness.
Max Morris
I left school in 1963.and started to work as an office boy with Hill Dickinson at their offices at 10 Water Street in Liverpool. The gulf between the office boy and the Senior Partner was enormous. The partners were “Gods” and were all addressed as “Sir”. They were very traditional on their ways and I gained from my 6 years with them a huge amount of knowledge but more importantly learnt about consideration and generosity that come with the power that the Partners had.
My memories of the 60’s were triggered buy my viewing the Liverpool Laws Society’s wall which displays the picture of all the former president’s going back almost 200. Max Morris is featured as a president in the mid 60s. Mr Morris was a very important Partner in Hill Dickinson. He was actually a very modest man brilliant in his field but a stickler for detail. He had heard that I was desperate to better myself and to study to become a Legal Executive. In those days you had to have a minimum of two “O” levels English and Maths. I was struggling with maths and he decided to send me for private tuition as his personal expense. My private tutor made all the difference and he got me through that exam. That helping hand proved to be invaluable to me. Mr Morris’s generosity (I would never call him Max, I have to much respect for him) has until now, probably never been known about. This sort of generosity, the difference it made to me puts Mr Morris firmly in to the category of “Local Hero”. Sadly Mr Morris died in a tragic Road Traffic Accident well before his time. His family should be very proud of such a wonderful man
Colonel Tom Hobday
In 1969 I Joined 208 Field Hospital a TA unit in Liverpool . By now I was on the way to qualifying as a solicitor. When I joined, the Commanding Officer was Col Tom Hobday. Colonel Tom could be likened to Harrison Ford the star of “Raiders of the Lost Ark”. He was larger than life and could speak 8 languages. He was both a barrister and a doctor. He was in fact at one time Liverpool ’s Medical Officer of Health. He went to annual camp with the TA as an MO 1939 and came home in 1945 and saved numerous lives in the process.
Col Tom went on to be appointed Queens Own Honorary Physician and received numerous decorations. He is considered to be the last person in the UK
It was during my time when i was still a private I applied to join the Law Society. This involved appearing before a three man panel. I had to produce the names of two referees one was Tom Hobday. Col Tom never told what he put in the reference. In fact I still recall the question asked at the interview” How well do you know Col Hobday?” I replied “As well as a private can know a Colonel” I got through the interview and the rest they say is history. I would like to acknowledge Col Tom for his consideration.
Tom was generous on so many ways. On one occasion he was approached by a member of our unit who was up on a drink driving charge. He was just over the limit and he told Tom he had been serving behind the bar at the British Legion Club. He had therefore been breathing in the fumes from the alcohol all evening as well as having a couple of drinks. Tom appeared at court and gave evidence to the Magistrate that the affects of the alcohol fumes had put him over the limit . He had been able to prove this by experimenting on himself by a blood sample being taken and then sitting at a table for the same amount of time the solider had been working behind the bar and breathing in the fumes coming from a saucer of whiskey He had then had a further reading taken from his blood which revealed alcohol. This resulted in the soldier being given an absolute discharge saving his licence and livelihood as a driver. Now that is what I call a “Local Hero”. Tom died many years ago what a man. It was a privilege to have known him.
Norman Jones is the current Vice President of the Liverpool Law Society (03/04/10)
