Master Gerard Ryan and Master Sheila Cameron married in Middle Temple Church on Saturday, 3 December 1960. They lived in 5 Pump Court so that Sheila could continue her work as soon as possible after her two sons were born, Andrew in 1965 and Nicholas in 1967. In 2002, Sheila became Autumn Reader and her plaque with her coat of arms was displayed in the corridor outside Hall.
Gerard, always known as Gerry, was educated at Brighton College and then at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he studied Botany, switching to Law in his final year. He never lost his fascination for Botany and was never more excited than when on holiday in the Scilly Isles, he found and lovingly held a great green grasshopper in the palm of his hand, much like David Attenborough!
Gerry retired to his house in Sussex, where he grew oranges and lemons. He had green fingers and everything thrived under his tender care. While still practising, Gerry, like Sheila, specialised in planning law, and he took part in the Sizewell B Nuclear Plant Inquiry. In retirement, despite loss of memory, Gerry delighted in seeing his older son, Andrew, with his daughter, Lizzie May, a talented marathon runner, and his grandson, Finlay, and also Nicholas with his four lovely daughters, Emily, Charlotte, Phoebe, and Darcy.
Sheila, born on Thursday, 22 March 1934, was evacuated to Perth in Scotland, where she lived with her mother, brother and younger sister. Her father, later Sir James Cameron RAMC, had been captured at Calais in May 1940 when the evacuation of Dunkirk was happening. He was moved by the Germans from camp to camp, wherever a doctor was needed. Eventually, he returned home and took up his practice near Croydon. Sheila went to Commonweal Lodge School, Purley, where she was Head Girl, and later studied Law at St Hugh’s College, Oxford. Like Gerry, Sheila specialised in Planning Law and represented nine local authorities during the Terminal 5 Heathrow Inquiry, which lasted almost four years, the longest in UK history. However, she found her métier in Ecclesiastical Law. She became Vicar General and Dean of the Arches, serving as legal adviser to three Archbishops of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, George Carey and Rowan Williams. In synod, she was a passionate supporter of women’s right to become bishops and was thrilled that this was eventually voted through. There was a lunch in Middle Temple Hall to celebrate 100 Years of women at the Bar, attended, amongst others, by Baroness Hale. Sheila looked down the hall at all the young women barristers and thought, ‘Mission Accomplished!’ The first husband and wife to become Benched in the same ceremony, Sheila and Gerry, contributed hugely to the Middle Temple Community, and they will be greatly missed.
Kindly written by Master Sheila Cameron’s sister, Jennifer Isaacs
