Sir Robert Blundell: Notebooks

A collection of the working notebooks and papers of Sir Robert Blundell (1901-1967), covering his work as a barrister on the South Eastern Circuit and Kingston assizes, 1938 to 1945, as deputy recorder at the Bath Quarter Sessions 1946-1947, as recorder of Colchester 1947-1949, as metropolitan stipendiary magistrate 1949 to 1953, and as Chief Metropolitan Stipendiary Magistrate 1960 to 1965.

The books contain his jottings on cases in hand; some cases are clearly identified and dated, others are not. The most notorious are from his stipendiary period, such as the prosecution of an MP for importuning in 1953 and of a publisher on account of Cleland's Fanny Hill in 1964, but there are several murder cases and one of police corruption. Two cases of 1917 are represented, though this was long before Blundell's call to the bar.

The series contains a single record for the South-Eastern Circuit which would otherwise be found among the records of the Home, Norfolk and South-Eastern Circuits (ASSI).

It is not always easy to identify the cases referred to in the minute books, but dates are often supplied for them, so that particulars of many of them could (in theory) be traced in newspaper reports of the time or in court records.

Topics

Crime

Personal and family papers

Sir Robert Blundell was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1924, he practised at the Central Criminal Court and on the South East Circuit. In 1946 he was deputy recorder at Bath quarter sessions, and from 1947 to 1949 recorder of Colchester. A metropolitan stipendiary magistrate from 1949, he became chief stipendiary in 1960.