My brother-in-law, Harry Calvert, who has died aged 92, was a lecturer in socio-legal studies in Belfast, Newcastle and Cardiff.
While at Queen’s University Belfast, Harry wrote a key text on the study of devolved government, Constitutional Law in Northern Ireland (1968). He was later an influential adviser at the Sunningdale talks in 1973, identifying a legal base for the short-lived power-sharing executive, brought down in 1974. It was his recollection that the most stubborn participant at Sunningdale was the British prime minister, Edward Heath.
In 1974, while at Newcastle University, Harry published the other work for which he is best known, Social Security Law. Two years later he moved to Cardiff University, eventually becoming dean.
Born in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, Harry was the son of Ada (nee Greenall), a midwife, and Tom Calvert, a “steam raiser” on the railways. His elder sister died in the week of his birth, and his father three weeks’ later. Harry and his other sister, Molly, then lived with an aunt and uncle for five years, until his mother was able to get a job as a district nurse. Ada remarried when Harry was nine, to Elijah Ellis, a good stepfather.
Harry won a scholarship to Holmfirth grammar school, leaving in the sixth form. After two years’ national service in RAF air-sea rescue, Harry did articles with a solicitor in Leeds. This required a statutory year in law school, at Leeds University, but Harry stayed for three, graduating in 1956. The same year he married Sue Tomline, an English teacher.
A move to Hobart, Tasmania, followed, for Harry to take up a lectureship at the university’s law school. He was then at Singapore National University for a period, before returning to the UK and three years at Aberystwyth University.
In 1963 Harry joined Queen’s Belfast, where he was involved with the emerging civil rights movement. However, as the situation in Northern Ireland became more perilous, Harry took a chair in Newcastle, before his final move to Cardiff.
Following his divorce from Sue, Harry married my sister Heather Cobb, an English teacher, in 1976. They settled in Hopkinstown, Pontypridd, with a succession of dogs. As well as his university role, Harry was appointed chair of the supplementary benefit appeals tribunal, sitting in Pontypridd – in the foyer of the local cinema. He stood down when chairs were required to be barristers or solicitors, but continued to train those who were.
He joined the South Wales Mountaineering Club, and broke both legs from a fall in Snowdonia in July 1982, but was climbing again within six weeks. In 1986, Harry published Smythe’s Mountains: FS Smythe and His Climbs, an account of Frank Smythe, a working-class climber of the early 20th century.
Harry took early retirement in 1987 and studied for a general arts degree at the University of Glamorgan, graduating in 2000.
Harry had three daughters, Emma, Tessa and Ruth, from his first marriage. Emma died in 1993. He is survived by Heather, Tessa and Ruth, five grand-daughters, four great-grandchildren, and Molly.
