The Viscount Alverstone | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Lord Chief Justice of England | |
| In office 24 October 1900 – 21 October 1913 | |
| Monarchs | Queen Victoria Edward VII George V |
| Preceded by | The Lord Russell of Killowen |
| Succeeded by | The Earl of Reading |
| Master of the Rolls | |
| In office 9 May 1900 – 24 October 1900 | |
| Monarch | Queen Victoria |
| Prime Minister | The Marquess of Salisbury |
| Preceded by | Sir Nathaniel Lindley |
| Succeeded by | Sir Archibald Levin Smith |
| Attorney General for England | |
| In office 27 June 1885 – 28 January 1886 | |
| Monarch | Queen Victoria |
| Prime Minister | The Marquess of Salisbury |
| Preceded by | Sir Henry James |
| Succeeded by | Sir Charles Russell |
| In office 5 August 1886 – 11 August 1892 | |
| Monarch | Queen Victoria |
| Prime Minister | The Marquess of Salisbury |
| Preceded by | Sir Charles Russell |
| Succeeded by | Sir Charles Russell |
| In office 8 July 1895 – 7 May 1900 | |
| Monarch | Queen Victoria |
| Prime Minister | The Marquess of Salisbury |
| Preceded by | Sir Robert Reid |
| Succeeded by | Sir Robert Finlay |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Richard Everard Webster 22 December 1842 |
| Died | 15 December 1915(1915-12-15) (aged 72) Cranleigh, Surrey United Kingdom |
| Resting place | West Norwood Cemetery Lambeth,London United Kingdom |
| Party | Conservative |
| Alma mater | Trinity College, Cambridge |
| Occupation | Barrister, judge |
Richard Everard Webster, 1st Viscount Alverstone,GCMG, PC, FRS (22 December 1842 – 15 December 1915) was a British barrister, politician and judge who served in many high political and judicial offices.
Webster was the second son ofThomas Webster QC and Elizabeth Calthrop. He was educated atKing's College School andCharterhouse, andTrinity College, Cambridge.[1] He was well known as an athlete in his earlier years, having represented his university in the first inter-varsity steeplechase and as a runner. As such, the Cambridge University Alverstone Club is named in his honour, and makes a pilgrimage toAlverstone,Isle of Wight, every four years.[citation needed]
His interest incricket and foot-racing was maintained in later life. He refereed races for the earlyAmateur Athletic Club and set rules forlong jump andshot put. He was President ofSurrey County Cricket Club from 1895 until his death, and of theMarylebone Cricket Club in 1903.[2]
Webster wascalled to the bar in 1868, and becameQC only ten years afterwards. His practice was chiefly in commercial, railway and patent cases until (June 1885) he was appointedAttorney-General in theConservative Government in the exceptional circumstances of never having beenSolicitor-General, and not at the time occupying a seat in parliament. As Attorney General Webster was prosecuting in theEliza Armstrong case, in the autumn of 1885, a major scandal widely reported in the press, involving a child supposedly bought for prostitution for the purpose of exposing the evils of white slavery. It led to the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885. He was elected forLaunceston in the following month, and in November exchanged this seat for theIsle of Wight, which he continued to represent until his elevation to theHouse of Lords. Except under the briefGladstone administration of 1886, and the Gladstone-Rosebery cabinet of 1892–1895, Sir Richard Webster was Attorney-General from 1885 to 1900.
In 1890 he was leading counsel forThe Times in theParnell inquiry; in 1893 he represented Great Britain in theBering Sea arbitration; in 1898 he discharged the same function in the matter of the boundary betweenBritish Guiana andVenezuela.
In theHouse of Commons, and outside it, his political career was prominently associated withchurch work; and his speeches were distinguished for gravity and earnestness. In July 1885, he was made aKnight Bachelor.[3] In December 1893, he was appointed to theOrder of St Michael and St George as a Knight Grand Cross.[4] In January 1900 he was created aBaronet,[5] but in May the same year succeededSir Nathaniel Lindley asMaster of the Rolls, being raised to thepeerage asBaron Alverstone, of Alverstone in the County of Southampton[6] and sworn of thePrivy Council,[7] and in October of the same year he was elevated to the office ofLord Chief Justice upon the death ofLord Russell of Killowen. He presided over some notable trials of the era includingHawley Harvey Crippen. Although popular, he was not considered an outstanding judge; one colleague wrote after his death that "the reports will be searched in vain for judgments of his that are valuable".He received thehonorary degreeDoctor of Laws (LL.D.) from theUniversity of Edinburgh in April 1902,[8] and was elected a Fellow of theRoyal Society later the same year.[9][10] In late 1902 he was in South Africa as part of a commission looking into the use of martial law sentences during theSecond Boer War.[11]
In 1903 during theAlaska boundary dispute he was one of the members of the Boundary Commission. Against the wishes of the Canadians it was hisswing vote that settled the matter, roughly splitting the disputed territory. As a result, he became extremely unpopular in Canada.
He retired in 1913, and was createdViscount Alverstone, ofAlverstone, Isle of Wight in the County of Southampton.[12]
In 1914, Webster publishedRecollections of Bar and Bench.[13]
Webster married in 1872 Louisa Mary Calthrop, daughter of William Charles Calthrop. She died in March 1877. They had one son and one daughter. Their only son, the Honourable Arthur Harold Webster (born 1874), died childless in August 1902, aged 28, after an operation forappendicitis.[14] The Arthur Webster Hospital, opened in 1905, was presented to the town ofShanklin, Isle of Wight by Lord Alverstone in memory of his son. The building is still in use as the Arthur Webster Clinic.
He commissioned the architect Edward Blakeway I'Anson to buildWinterfold House nearCranleigh in the Surrey Hills in 1886, in a classic late Victorian style, and laid out grounds with flowering trees and shrubs.
Lord Alverstone died atCranleigh, Surrey, on 15 December 1915,[15] aged 72 and was buried atWest Norwood Cemetery under aCeltic cross. His peerages became extinct on his death.
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Alverstone, Richard Everard Webster, 1st Baron".Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forLaunceston 1885–1885 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forIsle of Wight 1885–1900 | Succeeded by |
| Legal offices | ||
| Preceded by | Attorney-General for England and Wales 1885–1886 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Attorney-General for England and Wales 1886–1892 | |
| Preceded by | Attorney-General for England and Wales 1895–1900 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Master of the Rolls 1900 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Lord Chief Justice of England 1900–1913 | Succeeded by |
