de Vic Carey

Sir de Vic Graham Carey was born in Guernsey on 15 June 1940, the son of advocate V M G de Vic ("Michael") Carey and Jean (née Bullen). At the age of 10 days he evacuated to England with his parents in the face of German invasion. His grandfather Victor ( later Sir Victor) Carey remained as Bailiff and Civil Lieutenant Governor throughout the occupation. His father joined the Somerset Light Infantry and de Vic's early years were spent in Somerset. The family returned to Guernsey in 1945. de Vic was sent away to board at Cheam School and then Bryanston. In 1959 he matriculated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge and graduated as a BA in 1962 (MA 1967).

After university he served articles of clerkship with a firm of City solicitors and became a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Judicature in June 1965. He then decided to pursue his career in Guernsey, obtaining the Certificat des etudes juridiques francaises t normandes from the University of Caen, before being sworn as an Advocate of the Royal Court of Guernsey in January 1966. He joined Graham (later Sir Graham) Dorey as a partner in the family firm of Carey Son and Dorey, reconstituted as Carey Langlois and Co after Graham moved into Crown service in 1973.

On 22 June 1968 he married at Wymondham Abbey, Norfolk Bridget daughter of the late Major John Lindsay Smith 7th Gurkha Rifles (killed in action 1944). They had four children Perrin born 1971, Jenette (now Bales) born 1974, Henrietta (now Aparicio) born 1979 and Julius born 1980.

In March 1976 he was elected as People's Deputy in the States of Deliberation for the St. Peter Port electoral district resigning some eight months later when he was appointed H M Comptroller or Solicitor General for the Bailiwick of Guernsey advancing to the office of Procureur or Attorney General in 1982. In 1985 he was appointed to hold the office of H M Receiver General as well as that of H M Procureur a practice that has continued with his successors.

In 1992 he was sworn into office as Deputy Bailiff and Deputy President of the States of Deliberation. In 1999 he became the 87th Bailiff of Guernsey retiring in 2005. He also served as President of the Guernsey Court of Appeal and as a Judge of the Jersey Court of Appeal. After he retired as Bailiff he served part-time as a Lieutenant Bailiff, a Commissioner of the Royal Court of Jersey and an Ordinary judge of the Guernsey Court of Appeal. He finally retired from these judicial offices on 15 June 2012.

He was knighted in the New Years Honours of 2002.^[1]

From 2009 to 2015 he served as Deputy Chair of the Children's Convenor and Youth Tribunal Board which was established to implement the provisions of the Children (Guernsey) Law 2008. That law was enacted to make radical changes to the way cases involving children and young persons were to be dealt with in Guernsey, including establishing a tribunal of lay members similar to one which had been operating in Scotland for some years.

Sir de Vic has held a number of lay appointments in the Church of England as Churchwarden of St Peter Port 1967 to 1970, and St Saviour's 2009-2015, Lay Chairman of the Deaney Synod 1971-1997, lay member General Synod 1982-1998, and lay Chairman Winchester Diocesan Synod 1994-1997.

Sir de Vic and Lady Carey have travelled to a number of gatherings in other Commonwealth jurisdictions when he was serving as Attorney General and Presiding officer of the States of Guernsey, to Brittany where they had a holiday home for many years and to South Africa where his maternal family had settled.

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