He was admitted as a solicitor in 1933 after serving as an articled clerk, but instead of going into practice, he joined Gibson and Welldon, a well-known firm of law tutors.

He was an effective lecturer in the years leading up to World War II while he was also commissioned into the Royal Engineers (Territorial Army) in 1938, having joined as a sapper.

By the end of the war he had an OBE,[3] the Croix de Guerre (France), and the Order of Leopold (Belgium), and had reached the rank of brigadier.

He gathered a reputation for being a fast talker, and eventually came to specialise in disputes over rating and town planning, where his methodical approach and self-control were useful attributes.

One example cited in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography was his justification for limiting damages for economic loss in Weller v Foot and Mouth Disease Research Institute, a judgment handed down in 1966.

On 20 April 1971 he was created a life peer taking the title Baron Widgery, of South Molton in the County of Devon.

[8] Shortly after assuming office, Widgery was handed the politically sensitive job of conducting an inquiry into the events of 30 January 1972 in Derry, where soldiers from Parachute Regiment had shot and killed 13 civil rights marchers, an event commonly referred to as Bloody Sunday (a 14th person died shortly after Widgery's appointment).

The British government had acquired a level of goodwill in Northern Ireland due to its suspension of the Stormont Parliament, but that was said to have disappeared when Widgery's conclusions were published.

[citation needed] Widgery also ruled on the Crossman diaries case when the government attempted to suppress the publication on the grounds of confidentiality.

He made it clear during the case that he felt Crossman had "broken the rules", but ultimately refused to grant an injunction preventing publication.

For at least 18 months previously he had not been in control of either his administrative work or his legal pronouncements, he would fall asleep in court,[22] and it soon became apparent that he was suffering from dementia.