David Yale

David Eryl Corbet Yale, , Hon. QC (31 March 1928 – 26 June 2021) was a scholar in the history of English law. He became Queen's Counsel at the same time as Nelson Mandela, and became president of the Selden Society. He was also a reader in English legal history at Cambridge University from 1969 to 1993, and a life fellow at Christ's College, Cambridge from 1950 until his death. Early life The son of Lieutenant Colonel John Corbet Yale (1898-1941) and Beatrice Breese, David Yale was raised in British India and educated at Queens' College, Cambridge, where he studied law. His maternal grandfather was Major Charles Breese (MP), Parliamentary Private Secretary to H. A. L. Fisher, the brother-in-law of Sir Francis Darwin, son of Charles Darwin. Breese's family included MP David Williams of Castell Deudraeth, Sir Osmond Williams, 1st Baronet, the constable of Harlech Castle, and Dr. Leonard Williams. His paternal grandfather, Colonel James Corbet Yale, commanded the Hong Kong and Singapore Royal Artillery, lived at Plas yn Yale, Wales, and was a member of the family of Lt. Gen. Sir Love Parry Jones-Parry and Maj. Gen. Clapham of Widcombe Manor. David Yale was a member of the Yale family of Wales, who were historically the proprietors of the Lordship of Bromfield and Yale in North East Wales. As he approached 18, he decided that he must go to Queen's College at Cambridge University after the discoveries of his great-uncle who was keen on genealogies. He had discovered a couple of ancestors who in the 16th century had worked their way from Wales to Cambridge, inspiring him to do the same. Upon graduating in 1949 with a starred first and then completing a postgraduate LLB in 1950, he was elected a fellow at Christ's College, Cambridge. He was a lecturer at the University of Cambridge from 1952 until his promotion to a readership in 1969. In 1961, while on his first sabbatical leave, he spent a year in New Haven, Connecticut with his wife Elizabeth Ann Brett. He went to Yale University as a visiting professor, where he had been invited by the Dean of Yale Law School, Eugene V. Rostow, later Under Secretary of State for President Lyndon B. Johnson. The Dean's brother, Walt Rostow, was the National Security Advisor of John F. Kennedy.