Biography | Mahatma Gandhi — The Inner Temple Hall Where He Was Called to the Bar

People treat Gandhi as a figure who arrived in public life already wearing homespun.

The first professional certificate was issued in this hall.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was admitted to the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple on 6 November 1888. He gave his address as 20 Baron's Court Road, West Kensington, and paid an entry fee of £140 11s 5d, of which £100 was a returnable deposit.

Keeping terms meant attending dinners in the hall more than it meant lectures. Twelve terms, and the examinations, stood between a student and a call.

He was called to the Bar here on 10 June 1891. The call was proposed by A. G. Marten, a Master of the Bench.

The next day he was enrolled in the High Court of England. On 12 June he sailed for home.

The Inn later disbarred him, in 1922, after his conviction in India. It restored him to the books in 1988, on the centenary of his admission.

The courtyards and hall still stand in the Temple, between Fleet Street and the river. The pin is the Inn, not the West Kensington lodging, which is an ordinary private street.

Photo: Daniel Vodenitcharov, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons