Sir Chartres Biron's death removes a very individual figure from
legal and club—particularly Brooks's and the Garrick—circles. Sir Chartres appreciated greatly his posi- tion as Chief Magistrate at Bow Street (carrying with it the task of holding a court in the grand-stand at Ascot Races) and was greatly disappointed that the age-limit was not ex- tended for a year or two in his favour. He was a convinced opponent of flogging, and last time I met him reacted almost violently against a legal friend who was defending it. Biron is said to have declared that he only once made a joke in court, but he gave plenty of play to a pleasantly sardonic humour out of it. When a colleague once suggested that the two-minutes' silence on Armistice Day no longer served a useful service Biron commented, " I should hesitate to say that while my brother B. is on the Bench." Another colleague he advised to be, on the Bench, "like a little child, seen but not heard," which, he added, "would be unlike your jokes, my dear fellow." When a police-officer connected with Bow Street committed suicide, leaving a letter saying that he felt unequal to the performance of his duties, and the Clerk sug- gested that the Chief Magistrate should make no public reference to the matter, Biron at once concurred. "I quite agree ; " he said, "if it got out there might be a perfect ,holocaust among my colleagues."
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