Family pays tribute to former judge Gary Flather

Tributes have been paid to a top lawyer and long-serving Rotary club member.

Gary Flather died aged 80 in the early hours of Monday. He had a short spell in hospital but had been home for three weeks and his wife Baroness Shreela Flather said he spent his final week celebrating his 80th birthday.

“Last week he was at his best, he had a very nice week,” she said. “Because it was his birthday, people kept dropping in.”

Mr Flather was born in Sheffield to a ‘steel family’ – a route he did not want to follow, instead pursuing a career in law.

He married Shreela in 1952 after the pair met when studying law together, and had two sons Paul and Marcus.

The couple lived in Ascot Road for more than 50 years and have both been involved in the community.

Mr Flather  was a member of the Rotary Club of Maidenhead for more than 30 years while Baroness Flather was a Royal Borough councillor from 1976-91 and became the borough’s first Asian mayor in 1986.

In 1983 Mr Flather was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and although he had to use a wheelchair, Baroness Flather said he was determined to keep working.

He was called to the bar in 1962 and appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1984, sitting as a judge in Slough and Reading.

“He loved his work,” added Baroness Flather.

“He was very careful, he looked at everything in detail.”

In 1998 he was made an OBE for services to the legal profession and for promoting disability awareness.

As well as his job he served on a number of professional bodies, including being president of the Mental Health Review Tribunal for 23 years and chairman of Police Discipline Appeals for England and Wales.

His funeral will be for immediate family only but Baroness Flather hopes to organise something for others to celebrate his life at a later date.