Lord Brown of Eaton-under-Heywood

Former Justice

Simon Denis Brown, Lord Brown of Eaton-under-Heywood was President of the Security Service Tribunal from 1989 to 2000, and was appointed a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary in 2004.  He became one of the Supreme Court’s first Justices on 1 October 2009.

Lord Brown was educated at Stowe School (1950-1955) and Worcester College, Oxford (1957-1960), becoming an honorary Fellow in 1993. 

He served in the Royal Artillery as a national serviceman from 1955 to 1957 (including active service in Cyprus from 1956 to 1957), being commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1956.  Having been awarded a Harmsworth Scholarship, he was called to the Bar by the Middle Temple in 1961 and became a Bencher of the Inn in 1980.

Lord Brown was in practice at the Bar from 1961 to 1984, from 1979 to 1984 as First Junior Treasury Counsel, Common Law (in succession to Lord Woolf), and acted as a Recorder for that same period of time.

He became a High Court Judge at the age of 47 in 1984, a member of the Court of Appeal in 1992, Vice-President of the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal in 2001, a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary in 2004 and a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom in 2009.

Lord Brown also served as President of the Security Service Tribunal from 1989 to 2000, President of the Intelligence Services Tribunal from 1995 to 2000, Intelligence Services Commissioner from 2000 to 2006.  He was Chairman of Sub-Committee E (Law and Institutions) of the House of Lords European Union Select Committee from 2005 to 2007.

Lord Brown died on 7 July 2023.