As the only child of the novelist Georgette Heyer and her husband, Ronald Rougier, CBE, QC, Richard Rougier was, not surprisingly, a man of many talents, both intellectual and athletic.

Educated at Marlborough College, he went as an exhibitioner to Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he read classics and law. After taking his law degree, he completed his National Service in the Rifle Brigade.

He was called to the Bar by the Inner Temple in 1956, joined the South Eastern Circuit and became a tenant in the chambers of Martin Jukes, QC. He soon established a large general common law practice, specialising in personal injury and insurance law. When he took silk in 1972 his reputation grew swiftly in the fields of professional negligence, particularly medical negligence and the law of the pharmaceutical industry. No case in which Rougier appeared was ever dull and he kept his opponents and the judges on their toes. He also sat as a recorder from 1973 to 1986.

He was elevated to the High Court Bench in 1986, was knighted that year and served for 15 years as a puisne judge in the Queen's Bench Division until his retirement in 2002. During this period he tried many high-profile civil and criminal cases and perhaps attracted more than his fair share of media attention, for he was a man of strong opinions who did not lack the courage to express them. Nor could he resist the occasional slightly eccentric comment from the Bench, as, for instance, his lecture to a young lady on the dangers of overindulging in neat Pimms, followed by instruction on how to dilute it.

On another occasion, he expatiated on the ingredients of the perfect dry martini. But he was the most humane of judges, with a deep understanding of human nature. He always did his best to put witnesses at their ease and would not tolerate any bullying by counsel in his court. When it came to passing sentence, he was stern with the wicked, but compassionate towards the weak.

After he had retired from the Bench, he was invited to preside as a deputy coroner over an inquest of 11 patients in the psychiatric ward of a hospital in Derby. In recognition of the skill and sensitivity with which he conducted this inquest, he was elected a member of the Royal Society of Medicine, an honour that gave him much pleasure.

But the law was not his only interest. He had inherited a deep love of literature from his mother and was very widely read, with almost total recall. Whatever the topic, he could embellish his contribution with an apt quotation, Classical or modern, from his extraordinary store of knowledge. He was a superb host, treating his many friends to splendid dinners with outstanding wines from his cellar and regaling them with a fund of hilarious anecdotes, for he was a brilliant raconteur.

Bridge was another of his passions. He played with great skill in international company at the Portman Club, yet was the most generous and forgiving of partners when joining in kitchen bridge. Nor was he any slouch at backgammon.

Rougier was an elegant man, always well and sometimes even flamboyantly dressed. He had a fine physique, which he was at pains to preserve through diet and exercise. As a child, many of his holidays had been spent with his parents in Scotland, climbing, fishing and playing golf. He loved the Highlands, visited them every year and knew them intimately. He could name every loch and glen on his way to the Summer Isles.

He was an expert fly fisherman for both trout and salmon, and never happier than when fishing in Scotland, whether with a group of friends in some grand lodge or spending a week alone in a bothy on a freezing February river. He followed his father in playing golf to a single-figure handicap, which might have been even lower but for the lightning speed of his swing and the ferocity with which he rebuked himself for a bad shot.

His erudition and daunting personality could be intimidating on first acquaintance, but such was his generosity of spirit and kindness that all who met him were soon at their ease, enjoying his wonderful companionship.

After his retirement in 2002, he and his wife, Judy, moved to Court Place in Somerset, where they cultivated a beautiful garden. In the spring of this year, lung cancer was diagnosed and he was told he had only a short time to live. In the last weeks of his life, he visited his beloved Summer Isles and took a last cruise round the Hebrides.

His first marriage to Susanna Flint was dissolved in 1996. The same year he married Judy Williams. She survives him, together with the son of his first marriage.

Sir Richard Rougier, High Court judge, 1986-2002, was born on February 12, 1932. He died on October 25, 2007, aged 75