Sir Mota Singh, British judge, Died at 86

  Law

Sir Mota Singh was born on July 26, 1930, and died on November 13, 2016.

He was a British judge who was noted for being the United Kingdom’s first Asian judge.

Singh was only sixteen years of age when he lost his father, Sardar Dalip Singh.

The responsibility of the family with five younger siblings, widowed mother and grandfather when to him forcing him to leave his studies.

But, his school teachers convinced his family to let him resume studies, undertaking to finance his school education.

Following a short stint as a clerk at the East African Railways and Harbours, he joined a European firm of lawyers in Nairobi.

Mota Singh was married meanwhile to Swaran Kaur in 1950 and a daughter was born a year later.

Mota continued his Bar studies.

During 1953, he accompanied by his wife and daughter went to England.

When he passed the Bar final examinations in 1955, he returned to Kenya in 1956, to start his own practice as a barrister in Nairobi.

Mota Singh also entered politics and was elected a City Councillor and then elevated to the position of alderman of the City of Nairobi.

Singh went on to hold many responsible positions before he decided in 1965 to emigrate to England.

Singh joined the English bar in 1967 and made headlines with his appointment to the bench in 1982, the first from a minority ethnic group and first judge to sit on the English Bench wearing a turban instead of a horse-hair wig.

He retired from the Bench in 2002.

Mota Singh passed away at 86 years old.