Patrick Hastings - Retirement and Death

Retirement and Death

Hastings retired from most of his work as a barrister in 1938, but soon found a way to occupy himself after the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. Although far past the age at which he could join the armed forces, Hastings wrote to the Secretary of State for War offering his services, and was eventually contacted by Kingsley Wood, the Secretary of State for Air, who offered him a commission in the Royal Air Force as a squadron leader in Administrative and Special Duties Branch, serving with Fighter Command. His commission was dated 25 September 1939. He then started work at RAF Stanmore Park, but found his work "very depressing" - most of the other officers were over thirty years younger than he was, and he suffered from continuous bad health while there. His one major contribution was to create a scheme allowing the purchase of small models of German aircraft, allowing the British forces on the ground an easy way to identify incoming planes and avoiding friendly fire situations. Due to his ill-health he relinquished his commission on 7 December 1939.

In Spring 1940 he was elected Treasurer of the Middle Temple. He participated in only a few cases following his war service. One was a high-profile case in November and December 1946 in which he was engaged by the Newark Advertiser in defence of a libel action brought by Harold Laski, who was seeking to clear his name from the newspaper's claim that he had called for socialism "even if it means violence". Cross-examining Laski, the following exchange occurred:

Laski's counsel later said that he hoped that Hastings would at least have said "Touché". Laski lost the case, unable to counter the questioning from Hastings which referred to his previous written works. However the stress of the case told on Hastings.

In 1948, Hastings published his autobiography, simply titled The Autobiography of Sir Patrick Hastings, and the following year published Cases in Court, a book giving his views on 21 of his most noted cases. The same year he published Famous and Infamous Cases, a book on noted trials through history, such as those at Nuremberg. In early 1948, he suffered a small stroke which forced him to retire permanently from work as a barrister. On 11 November 1949, he and his wife travelled to Kenya, where their son Nicky had moved to start a new life after the end of the Second World War. While there, he suffered a second stroke due to the air pressure, and he never fully recovered. Hastings spent the next two years of his life living in a flat in London, before dying on 26 February 1952 of cerebral thrombosis.