Derek Oulton

Who is Derek Oulton?

Sir Antony Derek Maxwell Oulton, GCB, QC, PhD, M.A. is a retired British senior civil servant, was Permanent Secretary of the Lord Chancellor's Department and Clerk of the Crown in Chancery, United Kingdom, 1982–1989.

Sir Derek was educated at St Edward's School, Oxford and then read law at King’s College, Cambridge, where he took a double first.

He was called to the bar at Gray’s Inn, and was in private practice as a barrister in Nairobi until 1960, when he joined the Lord Chancellor’s Department. He was Private Secretary to three successive Lord Chancellors, Lords Kilmuir, Dilhorne, and Gardiner, and also served as Secretary to the Beeching Royal Commission on Assizes and Quarter Sessions, 1966–69.

Sir Derek's final civil service position was as Permanent Secretary of the Lord Chancellor’s Department and Clerk of the Crown in Chancery 1982–89.

He was awarded a University of Cambridge PhD on the basis of a jointly-authored practitioner text on legal aid and advice, and after retiring from the civil service entered academia, becoming a Research Fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge in 1990.