LAWRY Hobbs, director of administration for the Devon and Cornwall Magistrates' Courts Committee, left the Magistrates' Courts Service after 42 years of service. Lawry took voluntary redundancy due to the unified administration of the courts with effect from today (April 1). Lawry started work with the Magistrates' Court Serves on July 22, 1963, when he was appointed as an office junior in the Plymouth Magistrates' Court. His career progressed at Plymouth where he became a court clerk in 1974 and, finally, deputy justices' clerk in 1992. With the creation of the role of justices' chief executive, Lawry left the Plymouth court and moved to the JCE unit at Sutton Harbour on September 1, 1996, taking up the newly created position of assistant clerk to the committee. In 1999, the two MCCs for Devon and Cornwall were amalgamated and Lawry became chief administrator and latterly, director of administartion for the combined MCC. Past and present colleagues, members of his family and friends gathered on March 24 to mark the end of Lawry's 'magisterial' career.
