manslaughter he had dealt with. His role in the Thompson-Bywaters trial has been subject to controversy because of the prejudice he showed towards Edith Thompson, who had been charged as a co-conspirator in the murder of her husband by her lover, Freddy Bywaters. In his memoirs journalist and politician, Beverley Baxter, referred to it as only being "in a nightmare that judicial killing was ever countenanced by a supposedly civilised people". He also described the trial as having the atmosphere of "the days of the Roman Empire when the Christians were thrown to the lions". Shearman was unequivocal about his views of the young woman when he told the jurors during his summing up (he would only call them all gentlemen despite there being two women on the jury) what he thought about Thompson's adultery: "I am certain that you, like any other right-minded person, will be filled with disgust at such a notion." In 1925 Shearman became seriously ill, partly due to an old injury acquired on the football field. Following a medical operation, his speech was impaired, although he returned to work. He retired in October 1929. Personal life In 1884 he married Louise Long of New York, and they had two sons. His son, also called Montague Shearman (1886-1940), was a noted art collector, who assembled the Montague Shearman Collection, which contains such famous painters as Picasso, Dalí, Matisse, Utrillo, Sisley, Pissarro, Monet, Renoir, Lautrec, Rowlandson and many others. The Burlington Magazine noted that the collection focusses on "themes with a clear relationship to comfortable middle-class life .. the satirical element never becoming obtrusive, and in the Lautrec having a distinctly moralising tendency. One wonders whether there was a reason in Shearman's taste for preferring a Renoir landscape to a figure subject - did he dislike Renoir's fleshy and voluptuous types ? - and one's suspicions are strengthened on noticing that the little group of Etty nude-studies are all back-views !" Death Shearman died at his London residence, Leigh House, 6 Eaton Gate, in January 1930, aged 72. Books . (This book ran to five editions, and according to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography "stood the test of time for its comprehensiveness and for the quality of its writing") "New edition" (1888) Third edition (1893) Fourth edition (1894) (material from Athletics and Football: "issued separately, largely rewritten") References 1857 births 1930 deaths Queen's Bench Division judges