David Calcutt

{{Infobox person

| name = Sir David Calcutt

| honorific-suffix = QC

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| birth_date = {{Birth date|1930|11|2|df=yes}}

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| death_date = {{Death date and age|2004|8|11|1930|11|2|df=yes}}

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| nationality = English

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| known_for = The Calcutt Reports

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}}

Sir David Charles Calcutt QC (2 November 1930 – 11 August 2004) was an eminent barrister and public servant, knighted in 1991.[https://www.theguardian.com/media/2004/aug/17/guardianobituaries.pressandpublishing Sir David Calcutt profile], The Guardian, 17 August 2004. He was the Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge from 1985 to 1994. He was also responsible for the creation of the Press Complaints Commission. He is buried in the churchyard of St Beuno's Church at Culbone, Somerset.

Early life and education

Calcutt was born at Marlow, Buckinghamshire, where his father, Henry,The International Who's Who 1990-91, Europa Publications, p. 246 a pharmacist, ran a local high-street chemist's shop.{{Cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/sir-david-calcutt-b6jzsvwk8qj|title = Sir David Calcutt}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2004/aug/17/guardianobituaries.pressandpublishing|title = Obituary: Sir David Calcutt| newspaper=The Guardian |date = 17 August 2004 | last1=Morton | first1=James }}{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/sir-david-calcutt-39022.html|title = Sir David Calcutt| website=Independent.co.uk |date = 20 July 2013}}

Calcutt was a chorister in the choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, whilst attending Christ Church Cathedral School, then went on to Cranleigh School.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/36057203|date=17 June 1990|title=Doyen of the Great and the Good|work=The Observer}} As an undergraduate at the University of Cambridge he was a choral scholar in the Choir of King's College, Cambridge.

Career

Calcutt was known throughout the 1980s and 1990s for preparing reports and inquiries into various areas of public life. He was asked to produce a report on a fire in the Falkland Islands in which eight people died, then soon afterwards to produce a report into the Cyprus Seven spy affair, in which seven servicemen were acquitted of having passed secrets to the Russians.

He is most famous for suggesting the creation of the Press Complaints Commission in 1990, though he was later quite scathing about it, describing it as {{cquote|a body set up by the industry, dominated by, and operating to a code of practice devised by the industry and which is over-favourable to the industry.{{cite news |title=Sir David Calcutt |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/sir-david-calcutt-b6jzsvwk8qj |access-date=22 March 2019 |work=The Times |date=17 August 2004|url-access=subscription }}}}

Personal Life

In 1969, he married Barbara Walker,The International Who's Who 1990-91, Europa Publications, p. 246 a psychiatric worker. She died in 2015.{{cite news |url=http://announcements.telegraph.co.uk/deaths/192590/calcutt |title=Calcutt - Deaths Announcements |newspaper=The Telegraph |date=2015}} In later life Calcutt developed Parkinson's disease, but he remained "cheerful and genial".{{cite news |title=Sir David Calcutt |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1469476/Sir-David-Calcutt.html |accessdate=22 March 2019 |work=The Telegraph |date=15 August 2004}}