Tunji Sowande was the first black Head of Chambers and the first Black judge in the United Kingdom.
He was born in Lagos in 1912 and was the brother to Fela Sowande (musician). It was his love for music that brought him to London in the 1940s and he enrolled at King’s College to study Law only as an afterthought.
Overcoming the predictable racism of the time, he became a barrister, later Britain’s first Black Head of Chambers and eventually first Black judge.
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He also loved cricket, and in 1978 became a full member of a club you practically have to be born into – the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), whose ground is Lord’s, and whose committee used to select England Test sides.
Outside of law and cricket, Mr. Sowande travelled Europe and the UK as a musician, equally at home in jazz clubs as a drummer and saxophonist as he was singing in nursing homes or the Temple Church in London’s Inns of Court. His powerful baritone voice earned him a strong reputation as a concert soloist.
(The Nigerian Nostalgia 1960 -1980 Project)
