The Squire Law Library and the Faculty of Law are pleased to announce an entry into the Eminent Scholars Archive for Mr Colin Conyngham Turpin, who died on 18th July 2019.
This entry represents a new venture for ESA, being a posthumous tribute to a scholar whom we did not have the opportunity of interviewing. His demise predated a meeting that had been scheduled for a few weeks after he died. The entry consists of a biography, photo gallery, bibliography and pdfs of personal documents. These items have been compiled and edited with the help of his sons whom the author had the privilege of first meeting at Colin’s funeral at Barton Glebe in August 2019.
Colin Turpin was born in Middelburg, Cape Province, South Africa in 1928, and after attending school in the Karoo, and later Grahamstown, he then read law at the University of Cape Town (1946-50). He first arrived in Cambridge at Christ’s College (1951-53) for an LLB, before returning to South Africa at the University of Natal (1954-59) where he was a lecturer and later Associate Professor in law. During this time he became involved in anti-National Party politics, and following Sharpeville (1960), Colin and his wife Monique and four sons left South Africa to take an Assistant Lectureship at Clare College (1961).
Colin stayed at Clare for the remainder of his academic career, becoming Lecturer (1966-92) and then Reader in Public Law (1992-95). During this time he became friends and academic collaborator with fellow anti-Apartheid campaigner Sir Bob Hepple (1934-2015). He retired in 1995.
Colin is best known for his seminal volume British Government & Constitution which first appeared in 1985, and by the time of his demise had run to its 7th edition (with Adam Tomkins).