Court Mourning Dress
Posted: 12:51 Fri 16 Apr 2021
At the start of the year, we had a brief discussion about court dress and court mourning dress at a virtual offline. As is well known, court dress is still used quite widely in courts in the UK, mostly for serious criminal cases before courts which sit with a jury but also for a range of different civil cases, too. Barristers wear a gown, a shirt with a stiff collar and bands and, most infamously, a horse-hair wig. There are slightly different rules for solicitors, Queen’s Counsel and Scottish advocates.
The late Sir Henry Brooke’s website has an interesting page about what would happen during periods of court mourning. Barristers would replace their normal bands with “mourning bands” that have extra pleats in them whilst judges and QCs would sew “weepers” at the end of their cuffs. Apparently the last time that court mourning was officially declared was back in 1991 although it seems a few people wore mourning dress unofficially when the Queen Mother died. Unofficial mourning has a long tradition at the Bar: the barristers’ gown is actually a mourning gown (with a small mourning hood attached), the Bar having gone into mourning for Charles II back in 1685 and never left it...
At the offline, we had some discussion as to whether it would happen again on the death of a significant royal. The answer is that it appears not. The Lord Chief Justice put out an announcement referring to “National Mourning” but made no comment about court mourning. I think the biggest problem is a practical one. Since it is 30 years since the kit was used frequently, half the Bar no longer owns it and Ede & Ravenscroft no longer have a stockpile ready to send out!
Rather to my amusement, Ivy and Normanton, a new company which was set up recently to provide court dress for women (who were really badly served by the traditional suppliers) has somewhat stepped into the breach, advertising that they would make a batch almost as soon as the announcement came out, although since mine arrived today there isn’t much scope for wearing them before Monday. I guess we will have to see whether the interest they have generated will mean that it is declared when Operation London Bridge takes place.
The late Sir Henry Brooke’s website has an interesting page about what would happen during periods of court mourning. Barristers would replace their normal bands with “mourning bands” that have extra pleats in them whilst judges and QCs would sew “weepers” at the end of their cuffs. Apparently the last time that court mourning was officially declared was back in 1991 although it seems a few people wore mourning dress unofficially when the Queen Mother died. Unofficial mourning has a long tradition at the Bar: the barristers’ gown is actually a mourning gown (with a small mourning hood attached), the Bar having gone into mourning for Charles II back in 1685 and never left it...
At the offline, we had some discussion as to whether it would happen again on the death of a significant royal. The answer is that it appears not. The Lord Chief Justice put out an announcement referring to “National Mourning” but made no comment about court mourning. I think the biggest problem is a practical one. Since it is 30 years since the kit was used frequently, half the Bar no longer owns it and Ede & Ravenscroft no longer have a stockpile ready to send out!
Rather to my amusement, Ivy and Normanton, a new company which was set up recently to provide court dress for women (who were really badly served by the traditional suppliers) has somewhat stepped into the breach, advertising that they would make a batch almost as soon as the announcement came out, although since mine arrived today there isn’t much scope for wearing them before Monday. I guess we will have to see whether the interest they have generated will mean that it is declared when Operation London Bridge takes place.