Christopher French

Sir Christopher James Saunders French (14 October 1925 – 25 March 2003) was a British barrister and judge who sat on the High Court of Justice. He is most commonly remembered as the judge who sat on the Sellafield cancer litigation, described as "one of the longest, most complicated and most expensive civil actions ever heard before a British court." Early life French was born in 1925, the son of Reverend Reginald French, who had won a Military Cross in World War I for rescuing wounded soldiers under enemy fire, and was later named honorary chaplain to the Queen. He won an academic scholarship first to Denstone College, and then later to Brasenose College, Oxford, where he read law. His university studies were interrupted by the Second World War, where he service in the Coldstream Guards as a sapper. He was discharged in 1948 with the rank of captain, and returned to Oxford to finish his legal studies. Whilst at Oxford he rowed bow for the Brasenose eight.