It is with sadness that Fountain Court notes the passing of His Honour Owen Stable QC, aged 96. Owen entered the Rifle Brigade straight from school (Winchester College), seeing wartime and post-war service between 1940-46, and was called to the Bar by The Middle Temple in 1948 (Bencher 1969; Lent Reader 1987). Owen was a popular and distinguished member of Chambers with a busy general and commercial practice for many years, taking Silk in 1963. He was Secretary to the National Reference Tribunal for the Coal Mining Industry between 1953-64, Chancellor of the Diocese of Bangor between 1957-88, a Board of Trade Inspector between 1963-73 and a Recorder of the Crown Court between 1972-79. Owen was promoted to the Circuit Bench in 1979. He served as a Circuit Judge with great distinction, sitting principally at Snaresbrook Crown Court (where he was the Senior Judge, presiding over one of the busiest Crown Courts in the country), until his retirement in 1996. In a typically self-effacing manner he regarded one of his greatest achievements in the law as being the pupil master of the late Lord Bingham of Cornhill KG. He is survived and is much missed by his loving daughters, Emma and Victoria.
