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Biography & Autobiography Lawyers & Judges

Steering the Course

A Memoir

by (author) Sam Hughes

Publisher
McGill-Queen's University Press
Initial publish date
Apr 2000
Category
Lawyers & Judges, History & Theory, General, Public Affairs & Administration
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780773520424
    Publish Date
    Apr 2000
    List Price
    $95.00
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780773568365
    Publish Date
    Apr 2000
    List Price
    $110.00

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Description

Hughes gives moving details about his life, from his time in England as a child while his father was in action in France during World War I, to time abroad in the army during World War II, to events during his twenty-six-year tenure on the bench. His passion for family and for law shine through his account. Even after retirement, he was still very much involved in the law and was appointed to lead the Royal Commission investigating child abuse at the Mount Cashel Orphanage in Newfoundland. Steering the Course not only documents a life but provides a poignant first-hand account of this century. His recollections of the events and changes that this country has undergone during the last eighty years are a stirring reminder of an important part of our recent past. From the book: "My earliest recollection was of the first daylight air raid on London when my mother and I were living in St John's Wood. I remember the explosions that accompanied the bombing of Selfridge's in Oxford Street and I remember clearly that the taxi from which we were hastily removed had yellow facings on its doors." "On New Year's Day 1944 misery and frustration prevailed. Slit trenches, the natural refuge and even sleeping place for soldiers in combat, were full of water ... George Renison and I took a bottle of Scotch whisky to the command vehicle of the First Brigade ... The bottle, which went only once around the company, was a reminder of the celebrations of other days and its like had not been seen for weeks."

About the author

Editorial Reviews

"Of great interest not only to lawyers but also to journalists. historians, public servants, and, indeed, to the general public." Barbara M. Wilson, retired archivist