Partners lay on celebration to mark solicitor John's half-century

Partners in the practice of Gaby Hardwicke staged a dinner party attended by a total of 50 people to mark senior partner John Midgley's 50 years with the firm.

Appropriately, it was staged at the De La Warr Pavilion. Mr Midgley stands down on Monday as a member of the De La Warr Pavilion trust.

Before presenting John and his wife Elizabeth with a portrait of their home, managing partner Peter Taylor took the assembly back exactly half a century to the morning of Monday, October 6, 1958.

Then, the 16 year-old son of the Hastings Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages boarded a train at Warrior Square Station bound for Bexhill and the start of the first working day of his life '“ the whole of which has been with Gaby Hardwicke.

"Of course, things were very different then. There were no computers. Even photocopying was primitive '“ involving the creation of a negative before printing the positive and then leaving the paper to dry.

"Starting time was another. John was articled to George Herbert and they used to travel into the office each morning on the steam train from Hastings, arriving at the office at about a quarter to ten.

"Also salaries. When the then senior partner, Mr Hardwicke, was persuaded to waive the usual premium for John's Articles of Clerkship, John was paid no salary."

In his second year John received 5 per week.

He was admitted as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court in January 1964, after having achieved distinctions in his finals (rare in those days) in company law and tax.

He became a partner in the practice in 1968 and the senior partner in 1996 following the retirement of Jethro Arscott.

John met Elizabeth when he was chairman of the local Young Conservatives and she was secretary. Their son Jonathan is also a solicitor and is a partner in the practice. Their other son, Andrew, is head gardener at Castle Drogo in Devon and their daughter Suzanna, who lives in France, is about to produce their sixth grandchild.

John joined Bexhill Round Table in 1963 and later served as its chairman and then as Sussex Area chairman before joining Senlac Rotary Club.

He served for 19 years as a governor of Bedgebury School and also as a governor of Bexhill College. Latterly, he has bene a trustee of the Sarah Lee Trust and of the De La Parr Pavilion.

In a tribute, Peter Taylor said: "Always a brilliant lawyer and a master of his subject, he is possessed of an excellent memory for the details of statutes and cases and, above all, an intuitive understanding of the judicial thinking of the day.

"All of these things have made him a trusted and valued advisor, not only to his many, many clients (some of whom are here this evening) but also to his colleagues.

"As such, he has for many years fulfilled a role like no other within Gaby Hardwicke.

"He is also a trusted, loyal and valued friend, never judgemental, and a rock whose profound common sense and deep humanity has helped us all to steer a safe passage through the enormous changes inflicted upon our profession during the last couple of decades."

Taking up the theme of 50 years of change in an often-humorous response, John Midgley recalled that in his early days it was the custom to take an hour and quarter and go home for lunch.

"We used to work on Saturday mornings. I suppose if my younger partners wanted to provide a total public service as opposed to 95% there is an argument to say we ought to be available on Saturdays!"

He recalled that in 1958 Pevensey Marshes posed a strong barrier between Bexhill and Eastbourne. There was little professional or social contact between the towns.

Today, the practice's head office is in Eastbourne.

"If you grew up in Hastings, as I did, Bexhill was a bit of a Mecca. It would be a very special treat to go on a Sunday school trip from St Leonards on the trolley bus to Bexhill, go to Egerton Park and then to Arscott's tea rooms in in St Leonards Road, owned by the father of my future partner."

The town had changed from the time it had three golf courses and so many independent schools.

"The one constant in Bexhill is this place, the De La Warr Pavilion."

Referring to the letters column of the Observer, he added: "It was always needed. It will always be needed. It was never loved."

He thanked those attending, his clients for their loyalty, his partners for staging the celebration and his wife for her support.