UKABJ extends warm congratulations to retired Judge of the First Tier Tribunal, Patrice Wellesley-Cole, who was awarded a CBE in the King’s New Year’s Honours 2026.
After her graduation from St Hugh’s College, Oxford, where she was the only black undergraduate at the College, Patrice was called to the Bar (Inner Temple) and returned to Freetown, Sierra Leone, in 1977, where she had lived for six months. There, she set up a general Law practice. In 1990, she returned to England and took up various legal posts, eventually becoming a full-time Tribunal Judge in 2002. At the same time, she began to immerse herself in a lifetime of voluntary work, becoming Secretary and then Coordinator of International Relations of the Sierra Leone Association of University Women. In 1989, Patrice was elected as Vice-President of the International Federation of University Women (IFUW) –the youngest and the first elected African Vice-President.
After taking early retirement as a Tribunal Judge in 2017, Patrice served for three
years as President and Director of the British Federation of Women Graduates
(BFWG) and Director and Trustee of Funds for Women Graduates (FFWG) – one of
the largest providers of post-graduate scholarships in the country. She has worked with the UN Special Adviser on Genocide, UN Under Secretary-General Alice Wairimu Nderitū, volunteers with MSF/ Doctors Without Borders at their London HQ and at the BRC / British Red Cross. She is an Honorary Fellow of St Hugh’s College, Oxford. Her award as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire is for services to Charity.