Lives Remembered: Peter Farthing

The lawyer Peter Farthing, who died on 30 April, was born in Gloucester in 1949. He was educated at the Crypt School and at Pembroke College, Oxford, where he studied jurisprudence. He qualified as a solicitor after being articled to Rowberry Morris in Gloucester. He then joined the firm of Clyde & Co in London, where he became a partner in 1977.

Initially he handled shipping work, which at that time was the major component of the firm's practice, but gradually he came to specialise in insurance and reinsurance disputes for clients in the London market and elsewhere. He dealt with a number of high-profile cases, including ones in the House of Lords and Privy Council. He combined a keen intellect, legal erudition, a love of the process of debate and a ready wit. He read widely and was a fund of information on all sorts of topics.

Later in his career he became at various times a member of the Council of the Law Society, a member of the Governing Body of Pembroke College, Chairman of the Oxford & Cambridge Club and Secretary of the Ceiriog Valley Sheepdog Owners' Association. Apart from a busy professional life, he became interested in farming, buying and developing a farm in North Wales, where he lived after his retirement in 2007. His other interests included skiing, gardening, politics, classical music and opera. He never married.

Gordon Elliot