A dedication to Professor Ronald Maudsley

Martin, Jill E.

English

University of San Diego

TributeJILL E. MARTIN*I first met Ron Maudsley in 1974, when I joined the Faculty ofLaws at King's College London, where he had been a Distin-guished Professor of English Law for some years. His writingswere already well-known to me, but I knew nothing of the man.On the first day of term he was kind enough to take me to lunchand introduce me to my colleagues and to the wAys of the college.There followed a friendship and professional partnership forwhich I remain grateful. It was my good fortune that those areasof law in which I was interested were those in which his specialexpertise was a ready source of help and advice.Ron was at that time working on the tenth edition of his bookon the English law of trusts, Hanbury and Maudsley's Modern Eq-uity, which he had taken over from Professor Hanbury someyears before. He paid me the compliment of asking me to revisethe chapters on equitable remedies, which proved an enjoyabletask. Soon after this edition was published, Ron decided to livepermanently in the United States, which was a great loss toKing's College.I remained in close touch with him, as we had by this timeagreed that I should play a greater part in the preparation of theeleventh edition of Modern Equity. Much transatlantic correspon-dence followed as Ron divided his time between New York andSan Diego. I was glad that he decided to maintain his connectionwith Oxford through the University of San Diego Summer Insti-tute on International and Comparative Law, so that he was ableto visit King's College every year. It was during one such visitthat Ron told me of his illness diagnosed soon after his arrival in* Lecturer in Laws, King's College, University of London.July 1983 Vol. 20 No. 4the United States. No one who knew him at this time could fail tohave been impressed by the courage and stoic determination withwhich he faced his situation. I remember a meeting in Oxfordwith Ron and his London publisher where he coolly discussedwith us his plans for the future of Modern Equity after his death.In a lighter vein, I recall an occasion about a year before his deathwhen, although gravely ill, Ron agreed to join us for dinner in aLondon restaurant and realizing that it was the "glorious twelfth"(the date upon which the grouse shooting season begins), ordereda dish of grouse and did justice to it. And yet in spite of his phys-ical suffering Ron succeeded in producing some of his best workduring this difficult period, for example his Modern Law of Perpe-tuities, which was published a year before he died.Meanwhile work was progressing on the new edition of ModernEquity. At least once a week a large package would arrive fromSan Diego containing the latest draft of the section he was work-ing on, with a request for corrections and suggestions, a task notmade easier by Ron's appalling handwriting. At the same timemy drafts were being posted to him in the United States. At firstI was taken aback by his ruthless criticisms, but soon came to re-alize that this was the only way, and was what he expected fromme on his own writing. When the work was nearly complete I hadthe good fortune to be able to visit Ron in San Diego while on va-cation, and watched him giving a class on Wills with undimin-ished enthusiasm.Ron's last visit to England took place the following summer in1981. He was by this time greatly disabled, and few would havemade the journey in such circumstances. The last time I saw himwas when he came to lunch at King's College. Although his mo-bility was much impaired, he negotiated the many flights of stairsdown to the dining room and enjoyed seeing his former col-leagues again. Unfortunately, the proposed publication date ofthe book was not until November 1981, and Ron was right inthinking that he would not see it in the bookshops. By the timehe returned to the United States that summer the printing wasfinished but the binding process had not yet begun. The publish-ers kindly arranged to have one copy handbound and sent out toSan Diego by courier. It arrived the weekend before his death,and so he was able to see it and indeed he asked to look at it sev-eral times that weekend.When I think of Ron Maudsley today, it is with admiration forhis courage and his achievements, with gratitude for the profes-sional opportunities he gave me, and with great affection.

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