Gerald Sparrow


John Walter Gerald Sparrow was a British lawyer, judge and travel writer. He served on the International Court in Bangkok, Thailand, for over 20 years. He was the president of the Club of Ten, a pro-apartheid organization, and the author of over 40 books.

Early life

Gerald Sparrow was born in 1903 in Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire. He attended Sherborne School in Dorset, then Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He was the president of the Cambridge Union Society.

Career

Sparrow practised as a barrister in Manchester in the mid-1920s, then emigrated to Siam, where he was appointed, in 1930 and aged only 26 or 27, as a judge on the International Court in Bangkok. He served on the court "for two decades"
and lived in Thailand for 23 years. In 1941, during the Second World War, the Japanese invaded Thailand, and Sparrow was interned under harsh conditions. After the war, Sparrow resigned as a judge and opened a private law office in Bangkok, dealing mainly in commercial law. In the 1950s, he retired to England, where he became well known for his books, particularly the long series entitled The Great Forgers, The Great Traitors etc., which mixed famous and infamous criminal cases from history with other cases which Sparrow knew, often personally, from his time in Thailand.
He was the author of "over forty books, mostly about travel".
Sparrow was the president of the Club of Ten, a pro-apartheid organization whose members included South African, British, American businessmen. One of them was Lampas Nichas, a "South African fertiliser millionaire." However, the club was founded by Connie Mulder and Eschel Rhoodie, and the real aim was to publish "advertisements in the newspapers and otherwise do publicity work extolling the policies of the South African government". Sparrow opposed the sporting boycott of South Africa in 1974. He later recanted his views.

Personal life

In 1929, in England, Sparrow married Barbara Ethel Thompson. He later married secondly a Thai. He died in Bromley, Greater London, in August 1988.

Honours