Eric Sachs

Who is Eric Sachs?

Sir Eric Leopold Otho Sachs PC MBE TD was a British barrister and judge. He was a High Court judge from 1954 to 1966 and then a Lord Justice of Appeal until 1973.

Sachs was born in London. His father was an architect, and his grandfather had emigrated from Germany to England. Sachs was educated at Charterhouse School and served as a gunnery officer in the Royal Artillery in the First World War, from 1917 to 1919, receiving wounds to his left hand. After being demobilised, he read law at Christ Church, Oxford, graduating after 5 terms in 1920.

He was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1921, and was a pupil barrister under Wilfrid Lewis. He practised on the Oxford circuit and in London, and became a King's Counsel in 1938. He was also appointed Recorder of Dudley in 1938.

He served in the staff of the adjutant-general in the War Office in the Second World War, starting as a second lieutenant but rapidly promoted to brigadier. He was appointed MBE in 1941 for his war work. He transferred to political warfare - part of intelligence - in 1942 and was seconded to the Foreign Office to produced handbooks on the administration of the territories to be liberated by the Allies.