{{for|the Scottish rugby union player|Brian Neill (rugby union)}} {{short description|British jurist}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Sir Brian Neill | office = Lord Justice of Appeal | office1 = Justice of the High Court | honorific_prefix = The Right Honourable }}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2020}} {{EngvarB|date=January 2020}} '''Sir Brian Thomas Neill''' PC (2 August 1923 – 24 December 2017)<ref name="WW"/> was a British barrister and judge.
== Biography == He was the son of Sir Thomas Neill, JP<ref name="WW" /> and the elder brother of Patrick Neill, Baron Neill of Bladen. He was educated at Highgate School, where he later served as a Governor for 21 years.<ref name="WW">{{cite book |title=Neill, Rt Hon. Sir Brian (Thomas) |year=2007 |doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U29287 }}{{Subscription or libraries}}</ref>
After serving as a captain in the Rifle Brigade in World War II he attended Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he was later elected an Honorary Fellow in 1986.<ref name="WW"/> He was called to the Bar at the Inner Temple in 1949, eventually becoming a Queen's Counsel in 1968. In 1972 he became a Recorder of the Crown Court. From 1980 to 1981 he served as Master of the Turners' Company.<ref name="WW"/><ref>https://turnersco.com/company/masters/brian-neill-obituary/ {{Dead link|date=February 2022}}</ref>
As is customary with such judicial appointments, Neill became a Knight Bachelor in 1978 on being named to the High Court of Justice, Queen's Bench Division and was sworn of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom in 1985 on being named a Lord Justice of Appeal.<ref name="WW"/>
From 1985 to 1992 he was president of the Society for Computers and Law and from 2009 to 2012 chairman of the Slynn Foundation.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.scl.org/articles/10149/sir-brian-neill-a-tribute|title = SCL: Computers and Law}}</ref>
On concluding his service on the Court of Appeal in 1996 he joined the Judiciary of Gibraltar, becoming a Lord Justice, in 1997, and President, in 1998, of the Court of Appeal there before retiring in 2003.<ref name="WW"/>
In 2015 he was appointed a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur.<ref name="WW"/>
==Reading== * ''Essays in Honour of Sir Brian Neill: The Quintessential Judge'', edited by Lord Saville and Richard Susskind, foreword by Lord Woolf and Lord Bingham, LexisNexis Butterworths, 2003.<ref>[http://glamjam.co/pdf/essays-in-honour-of-sir-brian-neill-the-quintesential-judge.pdf PDF version]</ref> * [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2018/01/29/sir-brian-neill-appeal-court-judge-obituary/ Telegraph obituary (subscription required)]
==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Neill, Brian}} Category:1923 births Category:2017 deaths Category:Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Oxford Category:British Army personnel of World War II Category:English King's Counsel Category:Knights Bachelor Category:Lord justices of appeal Category:Members of the Inner Temple Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Category:People educated at Highgate School Category:Rifle Brigade officers Category:Queen's Bench Division judges Category:English people of Irish descent Category:20th-century English lawyers Category:Masters of the Worshipful Company of Turners