One journalist in 2007 wrote "'Who are the Beatles?' is the most famous such question. I'm sure it was never asked. I have spent an inordinate proportion of my journalistic life trying to trace it. I've searched newspaper archives and, over the years, asked literally hundreds of lawyers active during the 60s if they could point to a judge who said those words."http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/may/21/uk.law
It seems that if James Pickles did ask that question, it was probably later than that, since he was a judge from 1975 to 1991 (and that Daily Mail obit. says "From the mid-1980s onwards, he became a household name for his colourful opinions and remarks").
Interesting side-notes that his sister was the actress playing the mother of Ross and Monica on Friends, and he seemed to have a rather modern view on drugs: "Cannabis never killed anybody and it's use is widespread. You can’t stop it. The law defeats itself because all the efforts to stop drugs coming in only drives up the prices and then gangsters move in to push the drugs. If they legalised there wouldn't be gangsters and huge profits..."
Judges frequently ask questions to which they know the answers. It's a way of putting facts on the court record, which may be helpful in 100 or even 500 years time.
Ahh: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1340891/Judge-James-...
Doesn't say when he said it though.