Gerald de Basto


Gerald Arthur de Basto, QC was a Hong Kong judge, barrister and author.
Gerald Arthur de Basto was born into Bernard de Basto and Lucie Marie Pattard on 31 December 1924. Together with Oswald Cheung, Charles Ching and Ronald Arculli, de Basto founded Sir Oswald Cheung’s Chambers in 1965. He was subsequently appointed Queen's Counsel in 1968 and was made judge of the District Court in 1973 and the High Court in 1982. He was also chairman of the Hong Kong Bar Association from 1968 and 1970 and again in 1973. He co-founded the Hong Kong Law Journal with another barrister Henry Litton and was the editor-in-chief of the journal.
He married Diana Wilkinson and had issues Roger Alexander de Basto and Richard Jeremy Charles de Basto. He died on 28 January 2017 in Cape Town, South Africa.