Set mourns Ungoed-Thomas

Chris Fogarty reports

Barristers at 7 Stone Buildings have paid tribute to their 'quiet, strong and generous' colleague Fergus Ungoed-Thomas, who was killed in a fall during a walking expedition in Snowdonia.

Ungoed-Thomas, 54, had been walking in the Crib Goch range with 24 other members of the Midlands Association of Mountaineers when he fell 300ft on 9 January.

He joined the chancery set, headed by Charles Aldous QC, as a pupil in the early 1970s after a career in merchant banking and then computing. He had a first class degree and a PhD in mathematics from Oxford University.

His father, Sir Arwyn Lynn Ungoed-Thomas, was a Labour MP and Solicitor General under the Attlee government.

Michael Nield, a friend and colleague of Ungoed-Thomas' at the London chambers, said other tenants were still 'at the dumbfounded stage' after the news of his death.

He said mountaineering was his friend's passion. Ungoed-Thomas had recently been climbing in the Caucasus and was about to go to Georgia.

'In chambers we knew him as quiet, strong and generous. When help was needed he gave it unstintingly. We shall miss him,' said Nield.