Mr Justice John Blofeld, a judge of the English High Court, passed away in November 2025 at the age of 93.

His father was an Eton schoolmate of James Bond author Ian Fleming, who borrowed his surname for supervillain Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

“When he first sat in Winchester a barrister called Richard Bond stood up to open the first case,” Sir John Royce recalled of the judge in a letter last week.

“Mr Justice Blofeld began to stroke the white ermine on the sleeve of his High Court judge’s robes as if stroking a cat.

“He then said with a smile: ‘We meet at last, Mr Bond.’”

The anecdote has been widely enjoyed and circulated by lawyers on social media.