Lord Scarman
oil
119 x 90 cm
1989
University of Warwick

Lord Scarman
pencil
29.2 x 22.2 cm
1989
National Portrait Gallery

Judge and Lord of Appeal (1977-86), born 1911; Chancellor, University of Warwick since 1977; author of the Scarman Report, The Brixton Disorders 10-12 April 1981. This portrait was commissioned by the University of Warwick and the accompanying drawing is a study towards it.

The portrait in the background is of Mark Douglas, the Rastafarian who ran the restaurant in South London where Tom Phillips and Lord Scarman lunched during sittings. The columns symbolise the Pillars of the Law. Phillips explained these as a visual pun as Lord Scarman was a pillar of the Establishment and 'a capital fellow'. The quotation is taken from Thomas Paine's The Rights of Man. 57TR is 57 Talfourd Road where the sittings took place; Ch88 is Charter 88 founded by Lord Scarman and others with the intention of gaining support for the idea of a (BI)LL of RIGH(TS).