Death of a Member: Lord Kingsland

My Lords, I echo the sentiments of the Leader of the House. Lord Kingsland was one of the hardest-working Members of the Opposition, balancing his life at the Bar with that of being the shadow legal affairs Minister, which allowed him to be involved in almost any aspect of legislation that he wanted. He used that option with an energy and drive shared by few others. In his 15 years in the Lords, he built up a formidable reputation for his razor-sharp intelligence and eloquence. The House has lost a hard-working servant of the nation, and we on these Benches have lost a good loyal friend who was always happy to lend a hand, even before he was asked. He had a tremendous sense of the value of our nation’s ancestral constitution, which he understood deeply, and he was greatly saddened by the destruction of the office of Lord Chancellor—not for himself, as there are few as devoid of ego as was Lord Kingsland, but for the loss of a unique institution that he believed worked so well. Lord Kingsland made his home in Shropshire, where he concentrated his political career by representing the people of that county in the European Parliament from 1979 to 1994. Europe’s loss was our gain, and once he had re-established his career at the Bar he joined the Opposition in 1997 and led for us on most of the legal and constitutional Bills that came forward from that time to this. Indeed, so great were his enthusiasm and dedication that when I spoke to him last week to try to limit the amount of time that he was spending in the Chamber, he insisted that he was well, enjoying himself and could not bear to sit on the sidelines. It was this tenacious spirit that ensured that the Government did not get their way when they repeatedly tried to remove the right to trial by jury. Of course, politics was not his only love, but it was his underlying passion. As the noble Lord, Lord West, will affirm, he was a keen sailor in Cowes, and so he could not help but offer a word or two of advice on the Marine and Coastal Access Bill. In a world of celebrity and intrusiveness, Lord Kingsland was a deeply private individual—not because he had anything to hide; on the contrary, he had much to be proud of, but he never wanted people to make a fuss. He would have been embarrassed by the tributes this House makes today. A couple of years ago, he was quietly married to Carolyn, and to her we send our deepest condolences for a too-brief period of their lives spent together. It is not too much to say that his loss will be keenly felt across the political boundaries that divide this House. I held Lord Kingsland in the highest esteem and with the greatest affection. His was a life of public duty and public service, and it will be a long time before we see one like him again.