Horace Avory
Sir Horace Edmund Avory was an English barrister and High Court judge.
Biography
He was the son of Henry Avory, clerk of the Central Criminal Court. He was educated at King's College London, and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he was captain of boats and took the degree of LL.B. in 1874. He became a barrister of the Inner Temple in 1875 and married Maria Louisa Castle in 1877. He was elected bencher in 1908 and was knighted and made a judge, later to become a senior judge, of the King's Bench division in 1910. He received a Hon.D.LL. degree in 1911 and was made treasurer in 1929. He died at Rye, East Sussex.File:Horace Avory Vanity Fair 2 June 1904.jpg|thumb|left|
"slim"
Avory KC as caricatured by Spy in Vanity Fair, June 1904
Avory KC as caricatured by Spy in Vanity Fair, June 1904
Avory was one of the most noted English criminal lawyers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was involved in many sensational trials and became a household word as the most dreaded "hanging judge" of his age. He was called "thin-lipped, cold, utterly unemotional, silent, and humourless, and relentless towards lying witnesses and brutal criminals" and "impervious to bluff and merciless to perjury". He was nicknamed "The Acid Drop" in legal circles, due to his caustic wit in court. In private life, however, he showed a different face.
Famous cases in which he appeared to include the trials of Adolf Beck, Sir Roger Casement, Oscar Wilde, Jean-Pierre Vaquier, Patrick Mahon, Robert Coombes and Clarence Hatry. His prosecution of Adolf Beck contributed to one of the most significant miscarriages of justice in English legal history. Beck was wrongly identified by ten women as a swindler and was sentenced to seven years.
In recognition of his achievements, both Corpus Christi College, and the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple have student scholarships in the name of Horace Avory.
A portrait in oils by Charles Freegrove Winzer is owned by Corpus Christi.