Gerald Sparrow
{{Short description|British lawyer, judge and travel writer (1903–1988)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
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| name = Gerald Sparrow
| image = Gerald Sparrow.jpg
| caption = Sparrow in 1967
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| birth_date = 1903
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| death_date = 1988
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| alma mater = University of Cambridge
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| occupation = Lawyer, judge, travel writer
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John Walter Gerald Sparrow (22 January 1903– 22 August 1988) was a British lawyer, judge and travel writer. He served on the International Court in Bangkok, Thailand, for over 20 years. He was the president of the Club of Ten, a pro-apartheid organization, and the author of over 40 books.
Early life
Gerald Sparrow was born in 1903 in Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire.{{cite web|title=Sparrow, Gerald 1903-1988|url=http://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n80038439/|website=WorldCat|accessdate=March 18, 2018}}{{cite web|title=Sparrow, Gerald, 1903-1988|url=http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n80038439.html|website=Library of Congress|accessdate=March 18, 2018}} He attended Sherborne School in Dorset, then Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He was the president of the Cambridge Union Society.{{cite news|last1=West|first1=Richard|author-link=Richard West (journalist)|title=I, said the sparrow|url=http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/28th-july-1979/11/i-said-the-sparrow|accessdate=March 18, 2018|work=The Spectator|date=July 28, 1979}}{{Cite book|url=https://www.amazon.co.uk/Opium-venture-Gerald-Sparrow/dp/B0000CKHQ4|via=www.amazon.co.uk|title=Opium Venture|date=January 1960|access-date=2019-01-17}}
Career
Sparrow practised as a barrister in Manchester in the mid-1920s, then (invited by the Crown Prince) emigrated to Siam (now Thailand), where he was appointed, in 1930 and aged only 26 or 27, as a judge on the International Court (which tried cases involving non-Thais) in Bangkok. He served on the court "for two decades"
and lived in Thailand for 23 years. In 1941, during the Second World War, the Japanese invaded Thailand, and Sparrow was interned under harsh conditions. After the war, Sparrow resigned as a judge and opened a private law office in Bangkok, dealing mainly in commercial law. In the 1950s, he retired to England, where he became well known for his books, particularly the long series entitled The Great Forgers, The Great Traitors etc., which mixed famous and infamous criminal cases (and a few civil cases) from history with other cases which Sparrow knew, often personally, from his time in Thailand.
He was the author of "over forty books, mostly about travel".{{cite book|last1=Nixon|first1=Ron|author-link=Ron Nixon|title=South Africa's Global Propaganda War|date=2016|publisher=Pluto Press|location=London, U.K.|isbn=9780745399140|oclc=959031269|pages=54–56}}
Sparrow was the president of the Club of Ten, a pro-apartheid organization whose members included South African, British, American businessmen. One of them was Lampas Nichas, a "South African fertiliser millionaire." However, the club was founded by Connie Mulder and Eschel Rhoodie, and the real aim was to publish "advertisements in the newspapers and otherwise do publicity work extolling the policies of the South African government". Sparrow opposed the sporting boycott of South Africa in 1974. He later recanted his views.
Personal life
In 1929, in England, Sparrow married Barbara Ethel Thompson. He later married secondly a Thai. He died in Bromley, Greater London, in August 1988."John Walter Gerald Sparrow" in Death Notices from The Times, 1982-1988, published in The Times 25 August 1988
Honours
Selected works
- {{cite book|last1=Sparrow|first1=Gerald|title=The Sphinx Awakes|date=1956|publisher=Hale|location=London, U.K.|oclc=477852}}
- {{cite book|last1=Sparrow|first1=Gerald|title=The Great Swindlers|date=1959|publisher=John Long|location=London, U.K.}}
- {{cite book|last1=Sparrow|first1=Gerald|title=Hussein of Jordan|date=1960|publisher=George G. Harrap and Co.|location=London, U.K.|oclc=1632383}}
- {{cite book|last1=Sparrow|first1=Gerald|title=Modern Jordan|date=1961|publisher=Allen & Unwin|location=London, U.K.|oclc=2677978}}
- {{cite book|last1=Sparrow|first1=Gerald|title=Not Wisely But Too Well|date=1961|publisher=George G. Harrap and Co.|location=London, U.K.|oclc=250857508}}
- {{cite book|last1=Sparrow|first1=Gerald|title=Gordon: Mandarin and Pasha|url=https://archive.org/details/gordonmandarinpa0000spar|url-access=registration|date=1962|publisher=Jarrolds|location=London, U.K.|oclc=398468}}
- {{cite book|last1=Sparrow|first1=Gerald|title=The Great Imposters|date=1962|publisher=John Long|location=London, U.K.}}
- {{cite book|last1=Sparrow|first1=Gerald|title=The Great Forgers|date=1963|publisher=John Long|location=London, U.K.}}
- {{cite book|last1=Sparrow|first1=Gerald|title=The Golden Orchid|date=1963|publisher=Jarrolds|location=London, U.K.}}
- {{cite book|last1=Sparrow|first1=Gerald|title=The Great Abductors|date=1964|publisher=John Long|location=London, U.K.}}
- {{cite book|last1=Sparrow|first1=Gerald|title=The Great Traitors|date=1965|publisher=John Long|location=London, U.K.}}
- {{cite book|last1=Sparrow|first1=Gerald|title="R.A.B.": Study of a Statesman, the Career of Baron Butler of Saffron Walden, C.H.|date=1965|publisher=Odhams Books|location=London, U.K.|oclc=2584959}}
- {{cite book|last1=Sparrow|first1=Gerald|title=The Great Decievers|date=1967|publisher=John Long|location=London, U.K.}}
- {{cite book|last1=Sparrow|first1=Gerald|title=Gang-warfare: A Probe into the Changing Pattern of British Crime|date=1968|publisher=Feature Books|location=London, U.K.|isbn=9780283354632|oclc=39716}}
- {{cite book|last1=Sparrow|first1=Gerald|title=The Great Defenders|date=1968|publisher=John Long|location=London, U.K.}}
- {{cite book|last1=Sparrow|first1=Gerald|title=The Great Assassins|date=1968|publisher=John Long|location=London, U.K.}}
- {{cite book|last1=Sparrow|first1=Gerald|title=The Great Conspirators|date=1969|publisher=John Long|location=London, U.K.}}
- {{cite book|last1=Sparrow|first1=Gerald|title=The Great Spies|date=1969|publisher=John Long|location=London, U.K.}}
- {{cite book|last1=Sparrow|first1=Gerald|title=The Great Defamers|date=1970|publisher=John Long|location=London, U.K.|isbn=9780091047009}}
- {{cite book|last1=Sparrow|first1=Gerald|title=The Great Persecutors|date=1972|publisher=John Long|location=London, U.K.|isbn=9780091115401}}
- {{cite book|last1=Sparrow|first1=Gerald|title=The Great Intimidators|date=1972|publisher=John Long|location=London, U.K.|isbn=9780091095000}}
- {{cite book|last1=Sparrow|first1=Gerald|title=The Great Judges|date=1974|publisher=John Long|location=London, U.K.|isbn=9780091181901|oclc=1057391}}
- {{cite book|last1=Sparrow|first1=Gerald|title=Crime for the Connoisseur|date=1974|publisher=Leslie Frewin|location=London, U.K.|isbn=9780856320699}}
- {{cite book|last1=Sparrow|first1=Gerald|title=An Invitation to South Africa|date=1974|publisher=Neville Spearman|location=London, U.K.|isbn=9780854353422}}
- {{cite book|last1=Sparrow|first1=Gerald|title=The Con-men|date=1975|publisher=Arthur Barker|location=London, U.K.|isbn=9780213165239}}
- {{cite book|last1=Sparrow|first1=Gerald|title=How to Get Your Book Published|date=1979|publisher=Bachman & Turner|location=London, U.K.|isbn=9780859740944}}
References
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Category:Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Category:British expatriates in Thailand
Category:English travel writers
Category:20th-century English judges