Sir Antony Derek Maxwell Oulton, GCB

Order of the Bath

The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...

, QC

Queen's Counsel

Queen's Counsel , known as King's Counsel during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law...

, PhD (Cantab.)

PHD

PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...

, M.A. (Cantab.) (born 14 October 1927) is a retired British senior civil servant, was Permanent Secretary

Permanent Secretary

The Permanent secretary, in most departments officially titled the permanent under-secretary of state , is the most senior civil servant of a British Government ministry, charged with running the department on a day-to-day basis...

 of the Lord Chancellor's Department

Lord Chancellor's Department

The Lord Chancellor's Department was a United Kingdom government department answerable to the Lord Chancellor with jurisdiction over England and Wales....

 and Clerk of the Crown in Chancery

Clerk of the Crown in Chancery

In the Government of the United Kingdom, the Clerk of the Crown in Chancery is a senior civil servant who is the head of the Crown Office. The Crown Office, a section of the Ministry of Justice, has custody of the Great Seal of the Realm, and has certain administrative functions in connection with...

, United Kingdom, 1982–1989.

Sir Derek was educated at St Edward's School, Oxford and then read law at King’s College, Cambridge, where he took a double first.

He was called to the bar at Gray’s Inn (where he was later a Bencher

Bencher

A bencher or Master of the Bench is a senior member of an Inn of Court in England and Wales. Benchers hold office for life once elected. A bencher can be elected while still a barrister , in recognition of the contribution that the barrister has made to the life of the Inn or to the law...

), and was in private practice as a barrister in Nairobi

Nairobi

Nairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi County. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters". However, it is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun" and is...

 until 1960, when he joined the Lord Chancellor’s Department. He was Private Secretary

Private Secretary

In the United Kingdom government, a Private Secretary is a civil servant in a Department or Ministry, responsible to the Secretary of State or Minister...

 to three successive Lord Chancellor

Lord Chancellor

The Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, or Lord Chancellor, is a senior and important functionary in the government of the United Kingdom. He is the second highest ranking of the Great Officers of State, ranking only after the Lord High Steward. The Lord Chancellor is appointed by the Sovereign...

s, Lords Kilmuir

David Maxwell Fyfe, 1st Earl of Kilmuir

David Patrick Maxwell Fyfe, 1st Earl of Kilmuir GCVO, PC, KC, , known as Sir David Maxwell Fyfe from 1942 to 1954 and as The Viscount Kilmuir from 1954 to 1962, was a British Conservative politician, lawyer and judge who combined an industrious and precocious legal career with political ambitions...

, Dilhorne

Viscount Dilhorne

Viscount Dilhorne, of Greens Norton in the County of Northampton, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1964 for the lawyer, Conservative politician and former Lord Chancellor, Reginald Manningham-Buller, 1st Baron Dilhorne...

, and Gardiner, and also served as Secretary to the Beeching Royal Commission

Royal Commission

In Commonwealth realms and other monarchies a Royal Commission is a major ad-hoc formal public inquiry into a defined issue. They have been held in various countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Saudi Arabia...

 on Assizes

Assizes

Assize or Assizes may refer to:Assize or Assizes may refer to:Assize or Assizes may refer to::;in common law countries :::*assizes , an obsolete judicial inquest...

 and Quarter Sessions

Quarter Sessions

The Courts of Quarter Sessions or Quarter Sessions were local courts traditionally held at four set times each year in the United Kingdom and other countries in the former British Empire...

, 1966–69.

Sir Derek's final civil service position was as Permanent Secretary of the Lord Chancellor’s Department and Clerk of the Crown in Chancery 1982–89.

He was awarded a University of Cambridge PhD on the basis of a jointly-authored practitioner text on legal aid

Legal aid

Legal aid is the provision of assistance to people otherwise unable to afford legal representation and access to the court system. Legal aid is regarded as central in providing access to justice by ensuring equality before the law, the right to counsel and the right to a fair trial.A number of...

 and advice, and after retiring from the civil service entered academia, becoming a Research Fellow

Fellow

A fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade. The term fellow is also used to describe a person, particularly by those in the upper social classes. It is most often used in an academic context: a fellow is often part of an elite group of learned people who are awarded...

 of Magdalene College, Cambridge

Magdalene College, Cambridge

Magdalene College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mary Magdalene...

 in 1990. He is now a Life Fellow and, until his retirement in June 2007, supervised undergraduate students in constitutional law

Constitutional law

Constitutional law is the body of law which defines the relationship of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the legislature and the judiciary....

. Sir Derek received a standing ovation from the College Law Society following his retirement at the Annual Lawyers' Dinner in 2007. A bench sits beside the River Cam in the grounds of the College in his honour.

On 8 May 2008, Sir Derek addressed the Cambridge University Gray's Inn Association

Cambridge University Gray's Inn Association

The Cambridge University Gray's Inn Association is a student-run society of the University of Cambridge which acts as a bridge between the University and Gray's Inn, one of the four Inns of Court of the United Kingdom....

, giving a talk entitled "A Life in the Law".