Tributes have been paid to one of the most respected lawyers in North Wales after a touching remembrance service.
David Hooson, formerly of Segrwyd Hall, near Denbigh, who has died aged 88, joined the long-established law firm of Swayne Johnson in 1968 and became a partner and then a consultant for the firm until 2011.
He was also the Diocesan Registrar and Legal Secretary to the Bishop of St Asaph for 38 years from 1973 until his retirement.
David was a cousin to the eminent lawyer and Liberal MP for Montgomeryshire Lord Emlyn Hooson and a member of the well-known Hooson farming family.
He was also the historian of Swayne Johnson, a firm which can trace its history in Denbigh back to the early 19th century and when he started with the firm in 1968 his first duty each winter’s day was to light the fire laid the previous night by the cleaner.
He recalled: “Until the fire was alight and blazing there could be no question of legal work.”
The company, which started in Denbigh, now also has offices in Llandudno, St Asaph, Ruthin, Mold and Tattenhall in Cheshire.
David and his wife Eirlys had moved to Southampton in 2023 to be closer to their two daughters, Jacqueline and Karen. Eirlys passed away on March 6 last year.
The remembrance service which took place in Southampton was attended by a number of his colleagues from Swayne Johnson including retired former head of the firm Edward Lloyd who joined the practice in 1979.
He said: “I was an articled clerk and David Hooson was always treated with great respect – he was always Mr Hooson to me then, never David. The first time I called him David I was a partner.
“He was always affable, professional, well-respected and well-liked. People had a lot of affection for him.
“He was really interested in his work for the Diocese of St Asaph and he was the senior Diocesan Registrar in England and Wales – even the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Registrar would ring him up for advice.
“He really enjoyed the work and it was good for the firm.
“David had played cricket for Denbigh 2nd XI in his early days, continuing a long connection between the firm and the club
“If David thought a client was interested in cricket he would always introduce me to them and say, ‘This is Edward who opens the bowling for Denbigh’.
“Prior to David the two Colonel Swayne’s, father and son, who were partners in the firm, were presidents of the cricket club.
“David always maintained an interest in cricket and in the history of the firm, one of whose partners had been Guy Francis, who had played for Gloucestershire with W G Grace in the 1880s.
“As senior partner he was also very keen on new technology and was ahead of the curve in introducing computers and new technology – the firm would have been very old-fashioned without him.
“He had one secretary, Olive Wiliams, all through his career with the firm. She joined the firm in the 1940s and was still there when he stepped down as a partner.
“David was a keen gardener at Segrwyd where he had a beautiful wild flower meadow and he was a keen bee-keeper and always had jars of honey which he would sell for charity.
“His interests really were his work, his family, the church, Segrwyd and his bees.”
Swayne Johnson Managing Director Lynette Viney-Passig said: “David Hooson was well-known and highly respected, both personally and professionally, and was liked and loved by many for his gentlemanly demeanour, his gentle good humour and animated story-telling.
“He was well known for sharing stories of cases with which he’d been involved over the years and he would also generously share his great knowledge of the history of the firm and of the legal history of the legal history of Denbigh and Denbighshire.
“David’s passing marks the end of an era for the firm and he will be missed by a great many who will have fond memories of him and the many kindnesses which he and Eirlys shared with everyone they met.
“That included putting me up in an apartment at Segrwyd Hall when I first arrived in Denbigh as a 22-year-old from Bruton, in rural Somerset, and David and Eirlys made me feel very welcome and looked after me.”
