Rupert Cross

For the American film and TV actor, see Rupert Crosse.

Sir Alfred Rupert Neale Cross (15 June 1912 in Chelsea, London – 12 September 1980, Oxford) was a prominent English lawyer and academic. He was the son of Arthur George Cross and Mary Elizabeth (née Dalton).

He was completely blind from the age of 1 as a result of cancer of the eyes; and was educated at Worcester College for the Blind before proceeding to Worcester College, Oxford. He took his B.A. in 1933. and was awarded the degree of D.C.L. in 1958.

Cross became a solicitor in 1939 and was a tutor, Law Society, from 1945-48. From 1948 to 1964 he was a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford. He held a Visiting Professorship in the University of Adelaide, Australia, 1962, and in the University of Sydney, 1968..On the retirement of Harold Hanbury, Cross was elected Vinerian Professor of English Law in the University of Oxford, a position he held from 1964 to 1979. The Vinerian Professorship carried a Fellowship at All Souls College. He was a Fellow of the British Academy from 1967 and received a knighthood in 1973.

In 1937 he married Aline Heather Chadwick; there were no children.

As an undergraduate Cross represented Oxford University four times (1931–34) on the top board in the prestigious annual Varsity chess match against Cambridge University. He played several times in the top section of the British Chess Championship in the 1930s (for which only an elite group of twelve players qualified).

Works

His best-known work is probably Cross on Evidence, first published in 1959. In 1976 Cross published Statutory Interpretation. This book has been sufficiently well regarded that two posthumous editions have been produced, under the editorship of John Bell and George Engle. In recognition of Cross's great prestige, his name has remained in the predominant spot on the title page.

External links

• Braillechess.org: full account of Cross's chess and legal careers