Educated at Highgate School and Magdalen College, Oxford, he was Warden of All Souls College, Oxford from 1977 until 1995, where he has been an Honorary Fellow since 1995. He was Vice Chancellor of Oxford University from 1985 till 1989. He was made a Life Peer as Baron Neill of Bladen, of Briantspuddle in the County of Dorset in 1997. He became a barrister in 1951 and a QC in 1966, and is now head of chambers of Serle Court, in Lincoln's Inn.