Charles FRANCIS AM RFD QC interview 4/11/2003

Where were your chambers? Selborne Chambers?

I went into Selborne Chambers in 1949. At that time, nearly 90% of the Bar were in Selborne Chambers. It was a very old type building. The rooms were fairly small for the most part. They had glass with a pattern on it, but if you came close to the glass, you could see into a barrister’s chambers. In 1947, some members of the Bar had looked into the chambers of a barrister and saw him having intercourse with a client on a couch in his chambers. This was referred to the Bar Council as an ethics matter, but he left the Bar before the ethics hearing came on. He retired from the Bar.

I take it people were more careful after that particular incident?!

I think it was a fairly unique incident at the time. In those rooms too, this sounds very archaic, the main form of heating were fireplaces. We used to have wood supplied by a caretaker. I think it cost a shilling for a day’s wood and on cold days, you’d light your fire, if you were there most of the day, but if you were out at court and didn’t get back till four o’clock, you didn’t light the fire because it wasn’t worthwhile.

Conducted for the Bar Oral History project by Juliette Brodsky in the Neil McPhee Room, Owen Dixon Chambers and filmed by Stewart Carter (People Pictures)