Best known for the meticulous fairness he brought to his courtroom, Bob Lymbery was a gentleman judge in the truest English tradition. The understated, calculated and respectful manner in which he presided was appreciated by all who appeared before him and encapsulated by a letter he received from a defendant he had sentenced to 22 years’ imprisonment, thanking him for the manner in which he had conducted the trial.

Robert Davison Lymbery was born in Nottingham in 1920. He was educated at Gresham’s School, Holt, where he excelled both academically and on the sports field, and in 1939 he accepted a place to read law at Pembroke College, Cambridge. He had been there only a year when he was called up and commissioned into the 17th/21st Lancers. His experiences of active service in North Africa, Sicily, mainland Italy and Greece no doubt helped to form the measured and even-handed approach that he brought to his profession.

Demobilised with the rank of major, Lymbery returned to Cambridge and graduated with a first in 1948. The following year he was called to the Bar by Middle Temple and awarded a Harmsworth Scholarship. He joined the chambers of Richard Elwes, QC, at 10 King’s Bench Walk where he shared a room with the future Lord Chief Justice, Geoffrey Lane.

At that time the kind of specialisation which now exists at the Bar was unheard of, so Lymbery built a broad practice on the Midland Circuit, spanning most areas of the common law: crime, contract, divorce, medical negligence, planning and tort. His success was predicated on a warm personality and an appetite for hard work, allied to a flair for spotting the key point of a case and keeping himself, the judge and the jury focused upon it for the duration of the trial.

Lymbery’s first promotion was in 1961 when he was appointed deputy chairman of Bedfordshire Quarter Sessions, and then of Rutland Quarter Sessions a year later. He would later become chairman of both of these courts. As deputy chairman of the latter jurisdiction, he was junior counsel to Geoffrey Lane in the “Rutland Fights to Keep Local Government Local” campaign in June 1962, winning a seemingly impossible victory to ensure that Rutland remained a county in its own right.

Inevitably, working on the circuit involved a significant amount of travelling. Lymbery would follow the assize judge round the entire area three times a year, taking in Aylesbury, Northampton, Lincoln, Nottingham, Derby and Birmingham, and often Stafford and Shrewsbury as well. In 1965, after he had been appointed Recorder of Grantham, Lymbery was driving to Lincoln when an articulated lorry pulled out in front of him. With no chance of stopping, he aimed to collide with its back wheels before throwing himself horizontal in preparation for the inevitable crash, a decision that saved his life.

In 1967 he took silk and four years later became Commissioner of Assize. In September 1971 he was appointed to the County Court Bench in preparation for becoming, on New Year’s Day 1972, one of a new breed of judicial beings — a circuit judge, sitting at Bedford.

Lymbery achieved public renown after being depicted in a Giles cartoon in the Daily Express in 1975. Magistrates in Bedfordshire had ordered the destruction of a Great Dane, after it had bitten a child who had disturbed it while it lay sleeping on a sofa. When hearing the appeal of its owners, Lymbery was told that the dog was in the building, so resolved to visit it to see for himself if it was dangerous. He put out his hand to stroke it, and it bit him on the hand twice, but he spared the dog nonetheless.

In 1982 Lymbery was transferred to the Old Bailey. There he tried Valerio Viccei, who had masterminded the £40 million robbery of a Knightsbridge safe depository — a haul so large that Viccei famously filled the bath in his Hampstead flat with banknotes and covered its floor with jewels. Although Lymbery sentenced him to 22 years imprisonment, Viccei was so taken with the fairness of the hearing he had received that he wrote to Lymbery to express his gratitude.

Although he was respected for the accuracy of his judgments, in 1985 Lymbery was involved in a significant controversy. Winston Silcott appeared before him, accused of murdering a reputed gangster, Tony Smith. Although Silcott would later be found guilty, Lymbery found the evidence presented by the prosecution to be weak, so granted Silcott bail before his trial. At that time, PC Keith Blakelock was killed during the Broadwater Farm riots in Tottenham, North London, and Silcott was subsequently one of three men imprisoned for his murder. Although there was a public outcry, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Hailsham, defended Lymbery’s decision as “entirely proper”.

Lymbery was further vindicated in 1991 when the conviction was overturned on appeal, and Silcott still protests against the decision to find him guilty of the original crime, arguing that he acted in self-defence.

In 1990 Lymbery was appointed Common Serjeant of the City of London, the second-most-senior permanent judge of the Central Criminal Court after the Recorder of London. His role was as deputy to that office, and to sit as a judge in the trial of criminal offences, as well as presiding at the Mayor’s Court and providing legal advice and counsel to the City of London Corporation. He retired in 1993.

In 1995 Lymbery was at a livery dinner at Cutlers’ Hall in the City when he suffered a terrible accident. Using crutches after an operation on both of his ankles, he tripped and fell 12 feet over the railings of the grand staircase, landing head first on a table. As soon as he had recovered he wrote to the Cutlers, apologising for the damage and asking to be sent a bill so that he could pay for the necessary repairs.

Lymbery is survived by his wife, Anne, and their three daughters.

His Honour Robert Lymbery, Circuit Judge, 1971-93, was born on November 14, 1920. He died on October 13, 2008, aged 87