John Davies, Emeritus Fellow in Law, Brasenose College

John Davies, for many years a Fellow of Brasenose College, died on the 21st October 2020. He was 86 years old. His connections with Brasenose stretched back to 1954 when he arrived in Oxford from Birmingham to study for the BCL. Gaining the highest grades in his year group, he embarked on an academic career, taking a lectureship at Brasenose in 1959 following a year in Chicago. John moved to Birmingham University in 1963, but returned for a Fellowship at Brasenose in 1966, a position he held for the rest of his career. After his retirement in 2001 John continued to teach for many years both in Oxford and London. His teaching career spanned six decades, decades that saw dramatic changes within the Universtity, which John navigated with calmness and great skill.

John’s brilliance as a teacher and his quiet effectiveness as a colleague and mentor helped Brasenose to flourish as a law college. John was part of a generation of tutors who always put their students first, and he maintained contact with many of them years after graduation. John was noted for his mastery of the law, having taught, at some time or other, most of the core subjects, but also for his unfailing kindness, patience, and dry wit. There are many who have reason to be grateful to him. Former students of his now occupy a range of legal positions across the world, from those who sit on the Supreme Court or in Parliament, to those who ended up as his colleagues in Oxford. He will be sorely missed.

A further appreciation can be found on the Brasenose College website.