A Tribute to Richard Lingham
Dear Richard was a man with a quick wit, twinkling eyes, a big laugh, a strong sense of compassion and a belief in fairness. He was unafraid to speak out where he saw injustice.
I first met Richard in 1995 as a fellow visiting member of the Mental Health Act Commission (later subsumed within the Care Quality Commission). When Richard later became a lay member of the Mental Health Tribunal, I again sat alongside him, this time as a tribunal judge. Then we worked together in the Guernsey States, helping create of their new Guernsey Mental Health Law and sitting on the newly created Mental Health Review Tribunals.
But it was Richard’s talent as chair of independent mental health homicide inquiries of which I was in awe, and it led to a pivotal moment in my own career. He appointed me as legal adviser to an inquiry and thereafter when he was asked to chair another independent mental health homicide inquiry recommended the health authority appoint me instead. I shall be forever thankful to him for that since I went on to chair a number of other independent mental health homicide inquiries and subsequently worked with the Home Office and Department for Education to train new chairs of similar independent inquiries and reviews.
Richard was effectively my mentor. I modelled my approach on his and passed on his expertise. This was rooted in compassionate listening to families of victims, staff in hospitals and the community, identifying failures in care systems and hearing suggestions as to improvement. Unusually, there was always follow-up six months, a year and even two years after the inquiry, to establish whether recommendations had been implemented, with families of victims involved in the process.
After we both retired, we maintained contact with occasional phone calls and always wonderful Shipwrecked Mariners Society Christmas cards from Richard and Juliet.
I wish Juliet well. She will have much happiness to remember.
Gillian Downham
14/05/2026
