John Stocker (judge)
barrister, judge

Sir John Dexter Stocker, MC, TD, PC (7 October 1918 – 27 December 1997) was a British judge. He was a Lord Justice of Appeal from 1986 until his retirement in 1992.
Born in Wimbledon, the son of a chartered accountant, Stocker was educated at Westminster School and the University of London, where he read Law. During the Second World War, he served with the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment. He saw action at Dunkirk, El Alamein, and in Italy. He won the Military Cross at the Battle of Monte Cassino. He reached the rank of lieutenant-colonel.
Having intended to become a solicitor, he changed his mind and was called to the Bar by the Middle Temple in 1948. Becoming a Queen's Counsel in 1965, Stocker built a large common law practice, specialising in personal injury cases. He was counsel to the Widgery Tribunal.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “John Stocker (judge)” is barrister, judge. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through John, Stocker and judge, not as a finished interpretation.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q111914793. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1918, 1997, 1986 and 1992.
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This entry incorporates text from “John Stocker (judge)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.