Sir John Desmond Augustine Fennell OBE (17 September 1933 â 29 June 2011) was a British barrister and judge who chaired the public inquiry into the 1987 King's Cross fire. He was a High Court judge from 1990 to 1992, when he was forced to retire as a result of a stroke.
Fennell was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1982 New Year Honours "for political service in Wessex", and knighted in 1990.
Fennell was born on 17 September 1933 in Lincoln, England.
In 1966, he married Susan Trusted (1939âÂÂ). They had three children, including a son and two daughters.