A retired High Court judge, Norfolk landowner and namesake of James Bond’s nemesis, Sir John Blofeld has died at the age of 93.
Sir John was a notable figure in his own right but was also known for being the elder brother of cricket commentator Henry Blofeld and the father of author Tom Blofeld.
He was also a distant relative of the cricketer, Freddie Calthorpe.
Born on July 11, 1932, John Christopher Calthorpe Blofeld was the second of three children of Tom and Grizel Blofeld,.
He grew up at Hoveton on the family’s estate near Wroxham, which the Blofeld’s had owned since the 17th century when they married into the Doughty family, who had owned it for 200 years before that.
Not to be confused with the 19th century Hoveton Hall, Hoveton House was built by Sir John's ancestor Thomas Blofeld in 1680 and was long regarded as one of Norfolk’s architectural jewels.
Sir John’s grandfather – also called John – suffered a horrible death from anthrax which he had picked up from a cow on the estate in 1920.
His grandmother stayed on in the big house, so he and his siblings were all brought up at nearby Home Farm.
In the 1960s Ian Fleming confirmed to Henry Blofeld that his brother John had played a role in the naming of the supervillain.
“The story [Fleming] told me was that when he started writing Thunderball… he wanted an evil name,” Henry recalled.
“He couldn’t think of one [so] he took a taxi to Boodle’s, sank gratefully into a leather armchair and proceeded to go through the membership list in alphabetical order, looking for a suitably sinister name.
“He had reached the Bs when he was pulled up short by a couple of Blofelds, my father and brother. In his own words, ‘I slammed the book shut, gave a yelp of delight, ordered a pint of champagne, and never looked back.’”
Educated at Eton and King’s College, Cambridge, he was called to the Bar in 1956 and quickly established himself as a capable criminal barrister.
In 1966, he successfully prosecuted a 17-year-old labourer under the Race Relations Act for sticking a pamphlet saying “Blacks not wanted here” on the front door of the Labour MP for Southall – reportedly the first case of its kind.
He took Silk in 1975 and became a Recorder of the Crown Court the same year.
Appointed a circuit judge for East Anglia in 1982, he later served as Resident Judge at St Albans Crown Court.
In 1988, at Norwich Crown Court, Sir John jailed a clairvoyant for “a sustained course of conduct of obtaining money by deception” after the man extracted a wife’s life savings by claiming that his supernatural powers could force her unfaithful husband to abandon his mistress.
In 1990 he became a Judge of the High Court, Queen’s Bench Division, and went on to serve as Presiding Judge of the South East Circuit from 1993 to 1996.
He also sat frequently in the Criminal Division of the Court of Appeal before retiring in 2001.
The year before this, he was one of the appeal judges to release the M25 Three.
The M25 Three were Raphael Rowe, Michael George Davis and Randolph Egbert Johnson, who were jailed for life at the Old Bailey in March 1990 after being wrongfully convicted of murder and burglary.
Their case was so-named because the crimes were committed around the M25, London's orbital motorway, during the early hours of 16 December, 1988.
Each man was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder and given substantial sentences for the other offences.
The convictions were overturned in July 2000.
Beyond the courts Sir John gave many years of service to the Church of England, acting as Chancellor of the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich from 1973 to 2009 and of Norwich from 1998 to 2007.
He was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Norfolk in 1991, the same year he received his knighthood.
He was “a High Court judge to his bootstraps” his brother Henry once said, but one who never took himself too seriously.
A keen cricketer in his youth, he played once for Norfolk against the Kent Second XI in the Minor Counties Championship in 1957, scoring 36, and remained a devoted follower of the game throughout his life.
Sir John married Judith Ann Mitchell (b. 1932) in 1961 and together they lived at Hoveton House.
She died in 2013 and her funeral took place at Wroxham Church followed by a family internment at Hoveton St John Church.
Sir John died at home on Sunday, November 30, surrounded by his family after a short illness. He is survived by daughter Charlotte, sons Tom and Piers, and five grandchildren.
His funeral will take place at Norwich Cathedral on Friday, January 23 at 2pm.
- To read all obituaries and tributes join the Facebook group Norfolk's Loved & Lost.
Share