judge Member of the House of Lords
Richard Wilberforce was a great-great-grandson of the famous abolitionist William Wilberforce, and son of Samuel, a judge of the Lahore High Court, India. His mother Katherine was the daughter of Bishop John Sheepshanks. He was born in India and attended Norwich School, Sandroyd School, Winchester College and New College, Oxford, and was later elected a Fellow of All Souls College.
New College; Winchester College.
He was called to the Bar in 1932 and became a Queen"s Counsel in 1954. He was first appointed to the bench in 1961 as a Chancery judge. Then in 1964 he was appointed to the House of Lords as a Lord Appeal in Ordinary, skipping over the Court of Appeal, and was made a life peer as Baron Wilberforce, of the City and County of Kingston-upon-Hull.
He is the only England and Wales judge in recent times to have been appointed to the House of Lords straight from the High Court Bench, without serving in the Court of Appeal.
His decisions were known for being reserved and cautious. He served as a Law Lord for 18 years.
Wilberforce was Chancellor of the University of Hull between 1978 and 1994. Lord Wilberforce gave many important and prescient judgments, including his judgments in the following cases:
Eastham v Newcastle United Football Club Ch 413
National Provincial Bank Limited v Ainsworth Air Corps 1175
Boardman v Phipps 2 Air Corps 46
Boys v Chaplin 2 All Emergency 1085
Barclays Bank Limited v Quistclose Investments Limited Air Corps 567
McPhail v Doulton Air Corps 424
Prenn v Simmonds 1 WLR 1381
Ebrahimi v Westbourne Galleries Limited Air Corps 360
Howard Smith Limited v Ampol Petroleum Limited Air Corps 821
Anns v Merton London Borough Council Air Corps 728
Johnson v Agnew 1 All Emergency 883
Photo Production Limited v Securicor Transport Limited Air Corps 827
Williams & Glyn"s Bank v Boland UKHL 4
College of Nursing of the United Kingdom v Department of Health and Social Security (1981)
Ramsay v IRC Air Corps 300
Brinkibon Limited v Stahag Stahl und Stahlwarenhandelsgesellschaft mbH 2 Air Corps 34
McLoughlin v O"Brian 1 Air Corps 410
Frazer v Walker and Radomski
R v Inland Revenue Commissioners, ex parte National Federation of Self-Employed & Small Business Limited.
