Best known as the lawyer at the inquest into the death of Steve Biko, Sir Sydney Kentridge, 86, is the eminence grise of the Bar, the barrister’s barrister and one of a handful QCs who commands uncritical respect from his own profession. When in the Eighties the Bar took Lord Hailsham of St Marylebone, then Lord Chancellor, to court, it was to Sir Sydney they turned to present (with success) the challenge. Born in Johannesburg in 1922 he was educated in South Africa, including at university but after war service with the South African Forces went to Exeter College, Oxford, taking a first in jurisprudence. He is a member of both South African and English Bars (the latter since 1977), a bencher of Lincoln’s Inn and has served as an appeal judge in both Botswana and Jersey and Guernsey. A member of Brick Court Chambers, he has also been an acting judge in South Africa’s Constitutional Court. In his early days Sir Sydney became the leading lawyer for the defence in a series of political cases: as well as the Biko inquest in 1977 he acted for the Garment Workers’ Union and its secretary, ES “Solly” Sachs (father of Justice Albie Sachs). He was counsel for the local community at the inquiry into the 1960 Sharpeville massacre. He also appeared for Stella Madzimbamuto in her challenge to the legality of the Smith regime in Rhodesia. Cases in England include acting for the British Government (in the litigation on the Maastricht Treaty) and against it (in litigation citing the Home Secretary for contempt of court).

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