The Baroness Butler-Sloss | |
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President of the Family Division of the High Court of Justice | |
In office 1999 – April 2005 | |
Succeeded by | Sir Mark Potter |
Lord Justice of Appeal | |
In office 1988–1999 | |
High Court judge (Family Division) 3458 | |
In office 1979–1988 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Ann Elizabeth Oldfield Havers 10 August 1933[1] Buckinghamshire, England |
Nationality | British |
Spouse(s) | Joseph William Alexander Butler-Sloss (m. 1958) |
Relations | Sir Cecil Havers (father) Lord Havers (brother) Nigel Havers (nephew) Philip Havers (nephew) |
Children | Frances (b. 1959) Robert (b. 1962) William (1967–2018) |
Ann Elizabeth Oldfield Butler-Sloss, Baroness Butler-Sloss GBE PC (née Havers; born 10 August 1933), is an English judge. She was the first female Lord Justice of Appeal and, until 2004, was the highest-ranking female judge in the United Kingdom.
She was made a dame (DBE) on appointment to the High Court in 1979, and was sworn in to the Privy Council in 1988 when she became the first woman to be appointed to the Court of Appeal. When she retired as a judge in 2005, she was awarded Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE). In 2006, the government announced that she would be awarded a life peerage as Baroness Butler-Sloss. She sits as a independent peer in the House of Lords.
Until June 2007, she chaired the inquests into the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi Fayed.[2]