His Honour John SESSIONS Royal Navy

His Honour John Sessions, who has died aged 69, was a gifted naval officer and the last Judge Advocate of the Fleet.

John Lionel Sessions was born into a Quaker family in Cardiff on January 8 1941, the son of a civil engineer . John was educated at Westbourne House, Penarth, and at King Edward’s School, Birmingham.

He first sailed with his father when a small boy and was later to become a member of numerous sailing clubs, crewing regularly at Cowes.

In 1980 he was mate in the Dartmouth sail training yacht Wyvern when she won a Gold Medal in the Tall Ships race from Lowestoft to Oslo.

Sessions joined Dartmouth in 1959, where he became a cadet captain and passed out second in a strong year of 90 midshipmen.

His first ship was the obsolescent netlayer Protector which, as the Falkland Islands’ guardship, spent much time alongside in the fleshpots of South America.

Next he served in the destroyer Agincourt, followed by shore appointments on the staff of the Commander-in-Chief Home Fleet, and as Flag Lieutenant to the Flag Officer Medway.

Sessions found time to spend six months in Italy to qualify as an interpreter. He boarded in the palatial quarters of a local aristocrat where he fell in love with the daughter of the house, marrying her in 1967 in the chapel of a palazzo overlooking Florence .

He was then sent to study Law under the Navy’s scheme for those who, in addition to their duties as regular naval officers, would also serve as lawyers and judge advocates at courts martial. He was called to the bar of Middle Temple in 1972.

When the chambers he joined was designing new business cards for all its members, a colleague, finding that Sessions was unable to boast a university degree, wrote on Sessions’s card: “BA, University of Life”. In fact a legal colleague once described Sessions as one of the brightest men he had ever met.

After becoming a barrister Sessions’s career alternated between legal and naval appointments. He was supply officer of the frigate Leopard and later one of the carefully selected staff officers of Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth. When it eventually became clear that he must decide between his sick wife and his naval career, Sessions unhesitatingly chose the former and, in 1981, resigned to practise law in London.

He excelled in general common law, and was appointed Recorder in 1989, and Circuit Judge in 1992. He was a member of the Judicial Studies Board Civil from 1996 to 1999; a member of the Civil Justice Council from 1998 to 2000; and a member of the Parole Board from 2005 to 2008. He also advised the government of Guyana on the introduction of new laws . As a course director for the Judicial Studies Board, he helped to train new judges.

In 1995 Sessions became the 29th and last holder of the office of Judge Advocate of the Fleet, an appointment created in 1663 for a civilian judge to oversee the court-martial process in the Royal Navy. The office was formally abolished in December 2008 after the Armed Forces Act 2006 came into force.

He also chaired the Cranborne Chase Communities, which provides financial assistance to young people with learning disabilities .

John Sessions, who died on June 16, married the Contessina Patrizia Corinna Sanminiatelli, who died in 2005. In 2006 he married Averil Harrison, who survives him with his son and two daughters.
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From the Portsmouth News:

Court judge died from asbestos exposure
Published Date: 06 August 2010

A JUDGE died from cancer after being exposed to asbestos during his previous career in the Royal Navy, an inquest heard.

Chichester judge John Sessions contracted mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs, after being exposed to asbestos while serving in the Royal Navy between 1959 and 1981.

The inquest in Chichester heard Mr Sessions was an active man who was fit and healthy. But last year he developed coughs and sneezes.

In August last year he was diagnosed with cancer and despite chemotherapy, his condition continued to deteriorate. He died on June 16 this year at the age of 69.

At the end of June there was a hearing at Chichester Crown Court to pay tribute to him, at which he was described as a true gent by colleagues.

At the inquest into his death Coroner Penelope Schofield recorded a verdict of death from the industrial disease.

She added: ‘John Sessions was a fabulous judge and was well respected by members of the profession, and by members of the community.’