Remembering Lynton Tucker
We are heartbroken to announce the passing of Lynton Tucker.
Lynton’s death has deprived chambers of a valued friend and an outstanding lawyer. He was in practice at the Bar for over fifty years, all of them spent at 12 New Square and then New Square Chambers, the successor set.
He had a wide range of interests outside the law, including orchids, birds, diving and joinery; a very large bookcase he made with another member is still in chambers. Of those interests his colleagues in chambers may or may not have known much. All, however, will have known him as a lawyer. On coming to the Bar he very quickly developed an expertise in trusts and the associated tax; and well before most juniors have begun to specialise he had a substantial practice in those subjects. Bright minds are not unusual in trust work but Lynton’s shone. He possessed an unrivalled knowledge of the law and he had a power of incisive analysis of both law and fact. Without a hint of pedantry, a common failing of Chancery lawyers, he could give precise, detailed and accurate advice which left his clients knowing exactly where they stood and what they ought to do next.
It was unsurprising that those talents induced John Mowbray, sole editor of the sixteenth edition of Lewin on Trusts (published in 1964), to invite him to contribute to the next edition. Legal publishers were less demanding then than now and every few years they wrote courteously to enquire how things were going. Things were going slowly, as practice increasingly dominated his time, but the seventeenth edition emerged in 2000, with very substantial contributions from Lynton. The eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth editions followed at greater if not precipitate speed, Lynton becoming the senior editor. To him belongs much of the credit for the influence that Lewin has acquired in England and in the many jurisdictions with an English-style law of trusts. It was a book very dear to his heart and will be a lasting memorial to him.
In retrospect it was peculiarly fitting that a few months ago one of the legal directories chose him – not for the first time – as Chancery Junior of the Year. Illness did not stop him from working and, characteristically, he was at work on the day he died.
We mourn a friend and colleague of great ability.
Nicholas Le Poidevin, K.C.
New Square Chambers, Lincoln’s Inn
12 December 2025
His dear friend and colleague in chambers, George Laurence KC, has written a moving appreciation of the exceptional person he was. To read his appreciation, please see here.