OM Focus – Caroline Wigin (B2 1977-79)
On 7th May 2019, Caroline Wigin (B2 1977-79) was sworn in as a Circuit Judge. We wrote to her to ask her to tell us a bit more about how she got there and her time at the College.
“Looking back at my time at Marlborough the most helpful training for my career in the law was the breadth of teaching in English and History. Our beaks regarded the curriculum as a starter for ten and would riff on topics that interested us and them.
I remember fondly the speakers from diverse backgrounds who came to address us and who we were encouraged to challenge. After standing up in the Memorial Hall in front of your scornful year group public speaking is much less demanding.
Girls at Marlborough then were heavily outnumbered and entering in the Sixth form were joining an already tightly knit society of boys who had established their friendships and enemies years before which in itself was a good grounding for the equally un-diverse bar.
Most of all it was the other pupils, Marlborough was my first opportunity to meet with people of outstanding intellect and creativity; Matthew Sturgis, Luke Hughes-Davis, the late and much missed Annabel Freyberg. For a girl from a small provincial school it was a fascinating view into another world.
I returned to the North as was always expected and practised at the bar mainly in the fields of sex crime and child abuse both as a criminal and family barrister. Putting my name into Google shows the sad nature of the work.
Now suddenly transplanted to St Albans, I would welcome contact from Marlburians particularly from my year group and those considering a career at the bar.”
