Denys Roberts

Dato Seri Paduka Sir Denys Tudor Emil Roberts (羅弼時), KBE., SPMB was Colonial Secretary of Hong Kong from 1973 to 1978 (The title of Colonial Secretary was changed to Chief Secretary in 1976).

Born into a middle class family in England, Roberts served briefly in the British Army before reading law at Oxford. Upon obtaining a Bachelor of Civil Law there in 1948, he practiced briefly as a barrister in London and joined the Attorney General's Office of Malawi as a crown counsel in 1951.

For the next decade, Roberts would serve in various African colonies. In 1960, he was promoted to become Solicitor General of Gibraltar. Two years later, he was transferred to Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, Roberts held a series of important offices. He was first appointed Attorney General in 1966, then Colonial Secretary in 1973 and Chief Secretary in 1976. In 1979, then Governor of Hong Kong, Sir Crawford Murray MacLehose, appointed him Chief Justice.

Sir Denys served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Hong Kong from 1978 to 1988. He also served as Chief Justice of Brunei Darussalam from 1978 to 2001, a long standing judicial arrangement discontinued on his retirement as Chief Justice of Hong Kong, that he had continued to be Chief Justice of Brunei Darussalam. His successor Yang Ti-liang served instead as the President of the Court of Appeal of Brunei from 1988 to 1993. [1]

He was the last non-Chinese Chief Justice appointed to the Supreme Court of Hong Kong.

Reference

• Dato Seri Paduka Sir Denys Tudor Emil Roberts, KCMG., SPMB