User:SeoR/sandbox/Hubert Dunn

Hubert Dunn was a Northern Ireland-born English barrister and judge, who held national offices in the areas of immigration and mental health, and who in later life authored a study of the work of the Irish poet Francis Ledwidge.

Early life
William Hubert Dunn was born in Belfast on the 8 July 1933, the son of businessman William and Isobel Dunn (née Thompson) of Tudor Hall, Holywood, County Down, Northern Ireland. He attended Rockport School in County Down and later Winchester College. He studied for a Bachelor of Arts in politics, economics and philosophy at New College, Oxford, graduating with honours in 1955. He served in the Life Guards from 1956 to 1957, He worked at the chambers of Lord Havers and Frederick Lawton. He returned to New College, and in 1966 secured an M.A.

Career
Dunn was appointed Local Government Commissioner for the South-East Circuit of England, serving 1963 to 1964. He qualified to serve as a recorder in 1970 and was appointed as such in 1980. He was made a Queen's Counsel in 1982 and appointed as a circuit judge in 1993, serving until October 2005. He was later appointed as the Legal Member of the Restricted Patients Panel of the Mental Health Tribunal, which deals with patients detained after trial.

Dunn was appointed an immigration adjudicator and special adjudicator (dealing with asylum cases), and became the Chief Immigration Adjudicator in 1998, appearing before parliament in that capacity. He concluded his immigration work in 2001.

Non-profit and charitable work
Dunn served as a Bencher (a member of the governing body) of Lincoln's Inn from 1990 to his death. He was the founder, and for a period secretary, of the London Ulster Lawyers' Union.

Dunn was a leader from the early years of the charity Hope for Youth (formerly the Women Caring Trust for the Children of Northern Ireland), which runs cross-community projects for young people in Northern Ireland. He became chairperson it the charity's trustees, and when he retired from that role in 2003, assumed the role of president of the charity; his daughter later became a trustee of the charity.

Writing
Dunn was interested in the Irish poet Francis Ledwidge and cooperated with groups also interested in Ledwidge, including speaking at commemorative events. Having secured access to the curator and archive at Dunsany Castle, he produced a substantial illustrated study of the life and literary influences of the poet in 2006, The Minstrel Boy: Francis Ledwidge, and the Literature of His Time, which included some previously unpublished poems.

Personal
Dunn married Maria Henriqueta D'Araujo Perestrello de Moser, from Portugal, generally known as Henriqueta, in 1971. Their elder child, Cherry Eugenia Perestrello Dunn, born 1972, also pursued legal studies, becoming a solicitor, while their younger, James Hubert Sebastian Perestrello Dunn, born 1973, is generally known as the actor Sebastian Dunn. Henriqueta Dunn died on the 5 November 2018 and Hubert Dunn on 27 February 2020. His funeral was private, with donations invited to the charity he had long worked with, Hope for Youth NI, and a memorial service was planned.