Andrew Smith MBE TD 1963-2025
01 Dec, 2025It is with great sadness that we learnt of the death of Judge Advocate and former Bank House Chambers member Andrew Smith MBE TD on 29 November 2025 after a short and unexpected illness.
Andrew was born and educated in Manchester before making his way over the Pennines to study at Sheffield University. Following his graduation he decided to pursue his career options in Sheffield, initially in banking, before obtaining a pupillage at the then Paradise Square Chambers, the then plain Jeremy Baker, now Lord Justice Baker KC, being his Pupil Master. On completion of pupillage Andrew joined Bank Street Chambers in the early 1990s, just as we were in the process of moving premises to become Bank House.
In the years that followed Andrew flourished both personally and professionally. He met his wife Michelle and together they had two children, Henry now 17, and Matthew, who turned 15 while Andrew was in hospital. He was immensely proud of his family although sadly he did not live to see Henry’s acceptance to study medicine at Newcastle University.
As a student and young barrister Andrew was active in the Territorial Army, now known as the Army Reserve. On joining chambers he had the rank of Captain but through his ability and leadership he eventually retired from the TA with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. It was as a serving TA officer that he was deployed to Bosnia as part of the United Kingdom’s contribution to the peacekeeping mission following the fall of the former Yugoslavia. Andrew led the only TA regiment deployed and although he was characteristically reticent about the details of his service he was awarded the MBE for his contribution. He was later awarded the Territorial Decoration for his long standing dedication to the Territorial Army.
Within Chambers Andrew played many roles in addition to building and maintaining a busy and demanding practice requiring skill and dedication to maintain. He was much in demand as Defence Counsel and on the occasional foray into prosecution work was the classic poacher turned gamekeeper. He was a hard but fair opponent who had the respect of his peers and the judiciary before whom he appeared.
The culmination of Andrew’s judicial career was his appointment as a Judge Advocate in August 2021. He was assigned to the Courts Martial sitting in Catterick where he quickly established a reputation for fairness and efficiency and became a popular tribunal among members of the Bar travelling to appear before him – one of whom, on learning of Andrew’s passing said simply this “He always just got it right”.
Andrew will be sorely missed by all who knew him and by the many friends he made in the Army, on the Bench and in Chambers. But it his family who will feel his loss most acutely and it is with them that our thoughts and prayers will remain.
