The lady chief justice Baroness Carr has paid tribute to trailblazing judge Lord Terence Etherton, who has died aged 73, praising him for his “leadership and advocacy in advancing LGBT rights”.

Etherton was an influential member of the Court of Appeal and, in his capacity as master of the rolls, was England and Wales’ most senior judge responsible for civil justice from 2016 until his retirement due to ill health in 2020.

His many roles also included chair of the Law Commission and chancellor of the High Court. He was appointed to the House of Lords as a crossbench life peer in December 2020 and last year was awarded a knight grand cross (GBE) in the King’s birthday honours for his "historic, ground-breaking report" into the impact of the historic ban on LGBT military personnel and veterans, which was published in July 2023.

In a tribute published yesterday, Baroness Carr said he had enjoyed a "stellar legal career", describing him as "an inspiring judge and leader, with a passionate commitment to access to justice, and a true friend to so many of us".

Etherton was called to the Bar by Gray’s Inn in 1974, practising at what was to become Wilberforce Chambers between 1975 and 2000 as a specialist Chancery barrister in commercial, property and landlord and tenant law. He took silk in 1990.

During his early years at the Bar, he was a member of the Great Britain fencing team, but missed out on competing in the Olympics when he chose to join many fellow athletes in boycotting the 1980 Moscow games in protest at the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Carr noted: “One of his prized possessions, which remains in his former office at the Royal Courts of Justice, was a Lego mini figure of a fencing judge, complete with ceremonial red robes and full-bottomed wig – a reminder of his former career as a member of the British fencing team (sabre) in the late 1970s.”  

In Etherton’s valedictory speech, as remembered by Joshua Rozenberg, he said that upon inquiring about judicial office in the 1990s, then lord chancellor Lord Hailsham had a policy that barred him from “time on the bench”.

Etherton said: “It was barred to me not because of any particular regulation or legislation. It was barred to me because I was a gay man.”

After Lord Irvine of Lairg KC was appointed Lord Chancellor during the 1997 Blair administration, Etherton reapplied informally and was accepted. Subsequent reforms ensured that judicial appointments are made independently, with the Lord Chancellor holding an apolitical joint role alongside the Lady Chief Justice in the appointment process.

Recalling his civil partnership in 2006 and a subsequent religious ceremony in 2014 at a synagogue, Etherton stated that from appointment as a judge onward, he took a vow that he would never deviate “from being myself and from living a totally open and honest life as a gay man in a court setting”.

Etherton became a judge of the Chancery Division of the High Court in 2001 and chairman of the Law Commission – which reviews English law and recommends proposals for law reform – from 2006-2009.

On being elevated to the Court of Appeal in 2008, he said: “My appointment shows that diversity in sexuality is not a bar to preferment up to the highest levels of the judiciary.”

Recalling his tenure at the Law Commission, Carr said “he was a force of nature”, having piloted a new House of Lords procedure for uncontroversial Law Commission bills, which has since enabled numerous statutes to come into force.

On leaving office, he said: “What has driven me, at every stage of my career, has been an attempt to make things better for those who seek better access to justice, for those who seek more efficient justice, and for those who seek to extend access to justice.”

Noting his valedictory address, Carr said his hope of being a role model in keeping his promise to himself never to hide his sexuality was “very much achieved”.

She concluded: “He bore illness in his later years with dignity and stoicism, continuing to work hard and to support the rule of law to the very end.”

Etherton is survived by his husband Andrew Stone.