His Honour Judge James William Rant CB QC (16 April 1936 - 25 May 2003) was a British Judge and the Judge Advocate General from 1991 until his death in 2003. Rant was born on the 16 April 1936 in the Romford district of Essex and was educated at the Stowe School and Selwyn College, Cambridge. He graduated from Selwyn College in 1958 and was called to the Bar by Gray's Inn in 1961. He started practicing general law until 1970 when he began to specialise in criminal law, he became a barrister in 1980 and by 1984 had become a circuit judge, sitting at the Old Bailey from 1986.