Peter Smith

Sir Peter Winston Smith (born 1 May 1952), styled The Hon Mr Justice Peter Smith, is a former judge of the High Court of Justice in England and Wales, having been appointed to that office on 15 April 2002 and assigned to the Chancery Division. His name is correctly abbreviated in English legal writing as "Peter Smith J," and not as "Smith J," because there were other senior judges also named Smith. He was the subject of comment and investigation in relation to his judicial behaviour in various circumstances. He retired on 28 October 2017. Biography Smith was born in Taiping, Malaya to George Arthur Smith and Iris Muriel Smith, while his father was posted abroad. He grew up with five siblings in Hornsea, East Yorkshire, and attended grammar school in nearby Bridlington. He read law at Selwyn College, Cambridge. After receiving a BA degree in 1974, promoted in 1976 to an MA by seniority, Smith briefly practised in Liverpool before becoming a law lecturer at Manchester University from 1977 to 1983. He practised as a barrister on the Northern Circuit from 1979 to 2002, being an Assistant Recorder from 1994 to 1997, a Deputy High Court Judge from 1996 to 2002, and a Recorder from 1997 to 2002. Upon his elevation to the High Court bench in 2002, he was knighted as a matter of course. In 1980, Smith married Diane Dalgleish. They have one son and two daughters.