The George Padmore Institute recently heard with sorrow of the death of the brilliant barrister Courtenay Griffiths. Memories have flooded back of an evening in April 1997 when Courtenay enthralled an audience at the GPI with his account of his arrival in the UK at the age of five, his upbringing in Coventry and serving his pupillage at the chambers of the renowned QC and GPI Trustee, the late and greatly missed Ian Macdonald.
Courtenay Griffiths was born in Jamaica and joined his family to Coventry in 1961, the first black family in the city. He attended an independent boys’ school and was the only black student for the whole of his time there. Both of these meant that he encountered racism on a regular basis, which had a formative influence on his life. During his youth, Courtenay developed an interest in politics, fuelled by working at a youth club in Coventry, one of the few places where black youth could create their own entertainment spaces and escape harassment by police. He also read black literature sent to him from the USA by his older brother, who had migrated there in the early 1970s. When he moved to London for university, he worked at Dick Shepherd youth club in Brixton, continuing his earlier work with black youth.
Courtenay graduated with an LLB (Hons) from the London School of Economics in 1979 and was called to the bar in 1980. He was made (then) Queen’s Counsel in 1998, among the first black lawyers to take silk. Among his jobs, Courtenay was a Legal Assistant to the Greater London Council's Police Support Committee. This enabled him to combine his legal training with real political activity, as he drafted model legislation, in particular for a Police Authority for London, as well as looking at issues such as the criminalisation of black youth via public debates and speaking at meetings.
From 1985-86, Courtenay spent twelve months as a Revson Fellow at City College, New York, based in the centre of Harlem. Back in the UK, he returned to 2 Garden Court Chambers, where Ian Macdonald was also based, working on cases including the last Crown court trial of Frank Crichlow and the Mangrove community of west London. In later years he specialised predominantly in criminal defence, including murder cases, fraud and drug offences. Griffiths also sat part-time in the Crown Court as a Recorder, chaired the Public Affairs Committee of the Bar Council and worked for several years as chair of its Race Relations Committee. He was awarded honorary Doctor of Laws degrees from Coventry University and Leeds Metropolitan University.
The GPI sends condolences to Courtenay’s family, friends and colleagues as we mark the passing of this remarkable advocate for justice for all communities, particularly black people.
A fuller record of his adventures that Courtenay shared with us that evening in 1997 is available in the publication Changing Britannia: Life Experience With Britain edited by Roxy Harris and Sarah White and originally published in 1999. You can obtain the book here.
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