On 9th November, 2026, Rosemarie Tiffin gave a talk on "From GCSE's to the Judiciary".

Havig bee a fan of "Crown Court", Rosemarie wanted to be a judge from an early age, a major step coming from a lower mIddle class family, and attending a High School in Wanstead, Essex, leaving with 5 O levels. Having met a solicitor (who became a future Lord Mayor of London), she was encouraged to start a 6-month training programme in 1962/63 with a solicitor's office as an articled clerk. This was followed by 1 year at a College of Law, then back to the office for 2 years.    Rosemarie had some amusing stories of witnessing wills, as well as disinterring the body of a pauper who turned out to have more than adequate funds salted away in wellington boots. After marrying an engineer, her final exams lasted 4 years

She resigned form the solicitor's office (as she was denied a partnership) eventually setting up her own partnership, practising in Romford for 12 years, before moving to Australia for 18 months with her husband, who she ultimately divorced because of his addiction to alcohol and drugs. She then set up another solicitor partnership with another lady, practising up to the age of 50.

She was then encouraged to achieve her childhood ambition by 2 judge sponsors, who confirmed appointments are based on merit, rather then "quotas".  She joined the Immigration/Asylum Tribunal, and remained with them for 20 years. She quoted a current figure of 80 million displaced people around the world (4 times the figure after WW2). She herself dealt mainly with Serbian and Tamil refugees. Her decisions were always subject to appeal, which could be very frustrating. Child refugees are allowed to remain in this country until the age of 17.                                                     She highlighted cases of intimidation, particularly by bail seekers. 

Subjected to a question on how she foresaw Britain in 20 years, she predicted continued immigration, consistent with how this country has been forged since the time of the Romans.

She concluded with a grisly tale of an acid bath murder, where a husband had disposed of his wife in a bath full of acid. He ended up being murdered in Broadmoor.

Finally, David Newnham thanked the speaker, emphasising the talk being fascinating, inspirational, wide-ranging and amusing.