Philip Coppel QC looks into the Lord of Appeal who brought Atkin’s Court Forms into being 75 years ago
James Richard Atkin was born in 1867 in Brisbane, Australia. Shortly before her husband’s death in 1871, Atkin’s mother returned to Wales with Atkin and his two younger brothers. Atkin recorded: “There were no liners, so my Mother…the three babies…and a goat embarked on a sailing ship…The Cartyce, and sailed home round Cape Horn...I can remember nothing of it except that we started with pigs, sheep and poultry behind bars beside the bulwarks.” Atkin was to remain very attached to Wales.
An education
From Brecon College, Atkin won a scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford. On completion of his degree he secured the Arden scholarship to Gray’s Inn. He later said of his choice of career: “I came to the Bar because a cousin of my grandfather, Edwyn Jones, was a barrister…and had promised to guide my first steps. We had no connection with the English law…No acquaintance of that kind brought me any work.”
Called to the Bar in 1891, Atkin chose
