Sir Robert Worcester, Chairman of the Magna Carta 800th Anniversary Commemoration Committee, spoke fondly of the first time he saw the Great Charter at the age of 7 when he delivered the Keith Tucker Memorial Lecture at Kent last night.
Sir Robert recounted the occasion in 1940 when his father took him to see the document at the New York World’s Fair. The second time he went to see it was in 1957, on his first day in London on a visit to the British Museum during which he also saw the Rosetta stone. Sir Robert said: ‘These, to me, represented the two icons of civilised society: the rule of law and communication between peoples of the world.’ Sir Robert revealed that, more recently, he takes advantage of an app on his iPad to view the historic document!
Sir Robert, founder of MORI (Market and Opinion Research International Ltd) and a former Chancellor of the University of Kent (2007-2014), became a Trustee of the Magna Carta Trust 21 years ago and currently serves as Deputy Chairman. The Chairman of the Trust, by Charter, is Master of the Rolls (and Head of Civil Justice) Lord Dyson.
During his talk entitled ‘Magna Carta and its importance to our Legal System’, Sir Robert described an extensive world tour that he has undertaken this year. The Trust estimates that more than 1,000 activities commemorating the principles of Magna Carta have taken place in more than 50 countries including Chile, Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, Botswana, Kenya, Morocco, Malyasia, India, France, Germany, Italy and even Qatar.
In closing, Sir Robert said: ‘Magna Carta now touches the lives of nearly two billion people in over 100 countries throughout the world. For centuries it has influenced constitutional thinking worldwide in many Commonwealth countries, even in France, Germany, Japan, Poland, Italy and almost all of Europe and throughout Asia, Latin America and Africa.’
The lecture and networking buffet, hosted jointly by Kent Law Society and Kent Law School, was enjoyed by solicitors, barristers, members of the judiciary, students, staff and visitors. Amongst the guests was Marga Tucker, the wife of the late Keith Tucker, a former Honorary Secretary of Kent Law Society whose memory is honoured by the annual lecture, established in 1983. In an introductory address, Professor Nick Grief from Kent Law School said the topic of Sir Robert’s lecture served as an important reminder of everything Keith Tucker stood for.
When thanking Sir Robert for his talk, Deborah Hatton, immediate past President of Kent Law Society remarked that she hoped the UK’s Legal System would continue to be admired around the world despite ‘current difficulties’.
Sir Robert, who has been an Honorary Professor of Politics at Kent since 2002, was appointed by Her Majesty the Queen a Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE) in 2005, in recognition of the ‘outstanding services rendered to political, social and economic research and for contribution to government policy and programmes’.
A past President of the World Association for Public Opinion Research, Sir Robert was the winner of the Helen Dinerman Award for career contributions to innovative research and to research methodology in 1996. He is a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society and of the Market Research Society of Great Britain and was a Specialist Advisor to the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee.
More locally, Sir Robert is a Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Kent and a Kent County Council appointed Kent Ambassador. He was a Non-Executive Director of Kent Messenger Group and Chairman of Maidstone Radio, CTR 105.4 fm, and was a Non-Executive Director of the Medway Maritime Hospital NHS Trust until 2004.
Amongst many charitable causes he supports, Sir Robert is a Vice President of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts, of the United Nations Association and of the European Atlantic Group and was President of ENCAMS (Keep Britain Tidy). He is currently a Vice President and was a Trustee of Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust and was a Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) Trustee. He is a Vice President of Protect Kent, the Kent Branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England. From 1993 to 2010, he was chairman of the Pilgrims Society.
Previous speakers invited to deliver the Keith Tucker lecture series have included Kent alumna Dr Lucy Scott-Moncrieff CBE, a former president of the Law Society and the Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders CB.
A full version of Sir Robert’s talk will be made available to download as a podcast in due course. A copy of the text of Sir Robert’s talk is available to download as a PDF file: Keith_Tucker_Memorial_Lecture_notes_2015.
