OLD DERBEIAN SOCIETY
Obituary
Stephen Cropper (Derby School 1958-66)
A tribute by Rhys Clift
As is testified by the volume of condolences following his sudden and untimely death on 4 April, aged just 60, Stephen had a huge international network of clients and friends within and outside the legal profession. He had great warmth and generosity of spirit, a keen mind and a very well developed sense of humour.
He was a gifted natural linguist, raconteur and mimic, an accomplished public speaker, a bon viveur and gourmet. He left a lasting impression on those who worked for him and with him, including even those he met only briefly, whether in and about the London Market or on his many travels abroad on cases, visits, conferences and seminars. He spoke widely, at the Admiralty Law Institute in Tulane University, at the Australia and New Zealand Maritime Law Association and at the IMCC in Dublin, as well as at a myriad of more informal venues and occasions. A charismatic individual he was at ease with and had a charming respect for people of whatever background and origin.
Stephen Cropper was born on 10 May 1947 in Derby, in the English Midlands. He attended Derby School (a grammar school for more than 800 years) and, academically gifted, he went up to St John's College, Oxford in 1966 to read law, graduating in 1969. He took an M.A. in 1970. He retained a strong loyalty and attachment to his roots; he was a lifelong Derby County supporter and had the satisfaction of seeing his side promoted to the Premiership. The late partner at Hill Dickinson is instantly recognisable to anyone by the many recollections of his friends from his Oxford days; clever, cheerful, loyal, ebullient and irreverent.
Stephen had an appreciation of fine wines and for many years acted as the unofficial sommelier at Hill Dickinson. And in the modern era of political correctness, he was a breath of common sense and fresh air; in response once to an enquiry about his special dietary requirements he replied "certainly no clarets younger than 1982!"
In his younger days, Stephen was a fine sportsman and a first class hockey player, playing for the County while at school. He was a member of Vincent's at Oxford and, when he came down from Oxford, played for the Cygnets and Slough Hockey Club. He retained an active interest in and maintained many connections to the world of sport, whether as a member of the MCC, as a regular attendee at Twickenham, as a keen skier or by way of his friendships with first class sportsmen in the world of rugby and cricket. Latterly, he purchased a share in a thoroughbred Irish racehorse, "Zum Zee", which led to a whole new network of friends, and was a source of great pleasure and entertainment.
Most importantly to him and his wife Kate, they purchased a house in the South of France between Cannes and Grasse, where he and Kate were unfailingly welcoming and generous hosts; there he perfected an astonishingly accurate and highly amusing Nicois accent. That was to become their main home.
Stephen Cropper was admitted in June 1974, joined Hill Dickinson & Co, as it then was, in April 1978 and became a partner in 1982. Prior to that he was articled at Dawson & Co and was subsequently a Solicitor at Kidd, Rapinet. In 1989, he became a founding partner in the newly created Hill Taylor Dickinson and when Hill Taylor Dickinson remerged with Hill Dickinson LLP in 2006 a partner in the LLP.
In almost 30 years at Hill Dickinson he developed an extensive practice focussing largely on admiralty work. He was a robust man of huge stamina with considerable physical strength. He was enormously widely travelled to the Far East (most notably to Japan), to Australia and New Zealand, to India, to the Middle East, Russia and CIS States, to Europe, to North Africa, the Caribbean and North America. Unusually for maritime lawyers, some of the territories he visited included Nigeria, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Pakistan and Bangladesh. He had a particularly wide and loyal body of friends and clients in Japan, Holland, Russia and Germany.
On many occasions he was required to travel to difficult and dangerous places. He was particularly thorough in casualty investigations. He often demonstrated an uncanny knack of making professional friends on his foreign visits. He once travelled to Jamaica to investigate a Constructive Total Loss and returned both with the evidence and a new instruction; to act as Privy Council Agent in the dispute over the estate of one Robert Marley Esq. (albeit reggae was not one of his specialist skills).
He was an active member of the Admiralty Solicitors' Group and the British Maritime Law Association.
He quietly accumulated a body of significant, high value cases, most of which never reached the Law Reports. He was acutely aware that in most cases settlement on the right terms was the primary objective. He was a principled individual and a strong minded opponent. To list but a few, he handled some of the largest Lloyd's Form salvage cases, from the LNG Taurus in the early 1980s to most recently the largest ever SCOPIC claim; he marshalled the navigational evidence and limitation aspects of the Bowbelle/Marchioness collision in the Thames in 1989 under the then new Limitation Convention. He represented the Kingdom of the Netherlands (the Dutch Navy) in its submarine construction claims against the London Market and acted for Underwriters in the THOR II. Along the way, he drafted one set of plain language Rules for the Liverpool & London P&I Club and acted in a catalogue of collisions, groundings, sinkings, explosions and fires, piracy, energy and war claims.
Stephen's was a life lived to the full; a professional life of fulfilment and high achievement and a personal life packed with action and enjoyment.
Stephen is survived by his wife Kate, his mother Joan, his brother Stuart and families to whom all at Hill Dickinson send their sincere condolences. He will be very sadly missed by his many friends, by the partners and staff of the firm.
His memorial service will be held at St Botolph's Church, Aldgate in the City of London on 7 May 2008 at 5 pm. If you would like to attend, please, if possible, email either Jane Mann (jane.mann(at)hilldickinson.com) or Graham Laing (graham.laing(at)hilldickinson.com).
A Book of Condolences is available at our offices at Irongate House, Duke's Place, London EC3A 7HX and, electronically, at stephencropper.condolences(at)hilldickinson.com.
