About Oliver Popplewell
Sir Oliver Bury Popplewell (15 August 1927 – 6 June 2024) was a British judge and cricketer. He chaired the inquiry into the Bradford City stadium fire, presided over the libel case brought by Jonathan Aitken MP against The Guardian newspaper which eventually led to Aitken's imprisonment for perjury, and was widely reported for asking "What is Linford's lunchbox?" during a case over which he was presiding, brought by Linford Christie. He played first-class cricket for Cambridge University and was president of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) from 1994 to 1996. He wrote a memoir of his legal career, published in 2003. == Personal life == Popplewell's father was a civil servant. He was the father of four sons, the eldest of whom is the former Cambridge University and Somerset cricketer and now solicitor, Nigel Popplewell, and another of whom, Sir Andrew Popplewell, is now a Lord Justice of Appeal. A widower, Sir Oliver married Dame Elizabeth Gloster in March 2008. He was the godfather of Sir Stephen Fry, and the grandfather of Anna Popplewell and Lulu Popplewell. Popplewell died on 6 June 2024, at the age of 96. == Education == Popplewell went to Charterhouse School as a scholar, where he played cricket with Peter May and future politician Jim Prior, and after spending two years of National Service in the Royal Navy, he went to Queens' College, Cambridge, as an exhibitioner.
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