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Last Updated: Feb 6, 2017 - 2:32:04 PM |
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TURKS AND CAICOS - Sir
Richard Ground, a former Chief Justice and Court of Appeal judge of the
Turks and Caicos Islands, died last Saturday, February 22nd, in
Grindelford, Derbyshire, in his native England. He was 64 years old.
He is survived by his wife Dace McCoy Ground.
Sir Richard was Chief Justice of the Turks and Caicos Islands from 1998 to 2004.
He was held in very high esteem by his colleagues and friends in the
Cayman Islands, Bermuda and the Turks and Caicos Islands where he served
with distinction from back in the 1980s.
In addition to being a
highly-respected judge, Sir Richard was an avid amateur photographer and
natural historian who captured the beautiful array of bird life in the
Turks and Caicos Islands in a book called The Birds of the Turks and
Caicos Islands. He was also an enthusiastic underwater photographer.
Sir Richard was born on Dec. 17, 1949, in Stamford, England. He
attended Lincoln College, Oxford, and the Inns of Court School of Law.
In 1967, Sir Richard won an open scholarship to Oxford and captured the
Violet Vaughan-Morgan University Prize for literature the next year.
His undergraduate degree was in English Language and Literature in
1970, and he was called to the Bar in 1975. He was appointed Queen’s
Counsel in Cayman Islands in 1987.
Although his private law career
began at 1 Brick Court, Middle Temple in London – and included a
specialization in media law – Sir Richard would soon make his move to
the Caribbean, starting off in the Cayman Islands.
In 1983, he
served as Crown Counsel under then Cayman Islands Attorney General
Michael Bradley, eventually succeeding Mr. Bradley as Attorney General
in 1987. He would remain in that post until 1992.
Sir Richard then
departed the Cayman Islands to accept an appointment as a Judge of the
Bermudian Supreme Court, where he served between 1992 and 1998.
His final posting in the Caribbean prior to retirement was in 2004, as
the Chief Justice of Bermuda, where he served eight years until his
retirement in 2012.
During his time as Chief Justice in Bermuda,
Sir Richard began service on the Turks and Caicos Court of Appeal, where
he sat along with Barbadian Queen’s Counsel Elliott Mottley and
Jamaican Edward Zacca, QC, President of the court. He also sat on the
Cayman Islands and Bermudian appeals courts after his retirement.
Sir Richard was made a member of the Order of the British Empire in 1991
for his service as attorney general. He was made a Knight Bachelor in
2012 for his service as chief justice of Bermuda.
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