James Beresford Atlay

“ Joseph's cemetery at Cork.
In many respects Mathew was a typical representative of the south of Ireland. Ready and facile of speech, he was gifted with a delightful flow of humour and a strong appreciation of the lighter side of life. An ardent radical and a devout Roman catholic, he maintained the happiest relations with many who were vehemently opposed to him in religion and politics; on circuit he was always a welcome visitor at the houses of the dignitaries of the Church of England. A man of wide reading and culture, he was a warm-hearted and faithful friend. ”

“ Of a fervid temperament and very voluble in speech, he would identify himself absolutely with the interests of his client, and assail his opponents with as much zeal and indignation as if his own honour and property were at stake. ”

“ To the end of his life he retained the whiskers which were fashionable in his early manhood, and his dry humour, aided by much natural shrewdness and a wide acquaintance with human nature, made him irresistible to juries in breach of promise and libel cases. ”

“ A well-grounded lawyer and pleasant speaker, he was an admirable leader in routine chancery cases, and the care with which he got up his briefs and the pertinacity with which he plied his arguments made him an especial favourite among clients professional and lay. ”

“ Davey had very decided views on the evils of gambling, and was largely responsible for the Street Betting Act of 1906 (6 Edward VII c. 43) . The last reported case in which he delivered judgment was that of the Attorney-General v. the West Riding County Council, 14 Dec. 1906, when the House of Lords unanimously overruled the decision of Richard Henn Collins, master of the rolls [q. v. Suppl. II] , and Lord Justice Farwell, and held that the local education authority is bound to pay what is reasonable for denominational religious education in lawful hours in non-provided schools. ”

“ As a leader Grantham achieved considerable success on circuit, but in London he failed to make any conspicuous mark. His real and absorbing interest was in politics; a conservative of the most orthodox school, gifted with an excellent platform manner and considerable rhetorical power, Grantham took a prominent part in the conversion to tory democracy of the working-men of London and the home counties. At the general election of February 1874 he was returned together with James Watney for East Surrey by a large majority, which he substantially increased in April 1880. ”

“ Lewis died, after a prolonged illness, at his house in Portland Place, on 7 Dec. 1911, and was buried at the Jewish cemetery, Willesden; he had done very little professional work for some years before his death. He was married twice: (1) in 1863 to Victorine, daughter of Philip Kann of Frankfort-on-Maine; she died in 1865, leaving a daughter; (2) in 1867 to Elizabeth, daughter of Ferdinand Eberstadt of Mannheim, by whom he had two daughters and one son, George James Graham, who succeeded him in the baronetcy and as head of the firm of Lewis & Lewis. ”

“ The ‘Bishop of Newcastle's Fund,’ inaugurated by him in 1882 was the means of raising, in a very short space of time, upwards of a quarter of a million of money for church purposes in the diocese. Though meeting at first with opposition from the more militant nonconformists, he gradually won the confidence of all classes, and found generous support from the wealthy laymen of the north, irrespective of creed. In November 1895 he was translated by Lord Salisbury to the see of Chichester, vacant by the death of Richard Durnford, and he was enthroned in the cathedral on 28 Jan. ”

“ In 1859 he retired from the army with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and devoted himself to the management and embellishment of the estate of Lockinge near Wantage in Berkshire, which had been settled on him and his wife by Lord Overstone. Loyd-Lindsay was one of the pioneers of the volunteer movement, and took a main part in the raising of the Berkshire corps, of which he was made colonel commandant in 1860, and on the reorganisation of the force in 1888 he became brigadier-general of the home counties brigade. ”

“ When administering tHe criminal law, especially on circuit, he showed a sternness and upheld a standard of conduct which belonged to another age. The severity with which he punished the young roughs locally known as the 'High Rip gang' at Liverpool in 1887 was long remembered with gratitude in the north of England. He was a firm believer in the lash, and by perambulating the worst streets of Liverpool at night accompanied by his marshal and a single detective he got a first-hand acquaintance with the conditions of life in that city. ”

“ There was no more accomplished or successful electioneer in the south of England, and his services were widely in request as a platform speaker. By the death of his elder brother George in 1880 he had become squire of Barcombe and lord of the manor of Camois Court, a position which gave him additional prestige in 'the country party.' He became deputy chairman and eventually chairman of the East Sussex quarter sessions. ”

“ Wealthy and hospitable, he was a familiar figure in the artistic and theatrical world, and there was no phase of society with which his professional experience had not, at one time or another, brought him into touch. ”

“ His sermons, exquisitely delivered and given in fastidiously chosen language, had been widely appreciated both at New College and Wellington, and he was chosen select preacher before the University of Oxford for four different years. Wickham also took a prominent share in the debates of convocation and devoted himself to the better organisation both of primary and secondary education in the diocese of Lincoln. He was one of the leading spirits on the education settlement committee formed in 1907 to bring nonconformists and churchmen together. ”

“ Yet Grantham was perfectly sincere in his belief that in the discharge of his office he was uninfluenced by political partiality, nor was Mr. Arthur Balfour exceeding the truth when he declared in the course of the 1906 debate that 'a more transparently natural candid man than Mr. Justice Grantham never exercised judicial functions.'
A fine model of the English country gentleman, a liberal landlord, always ready to champion the cause of his poorer neighbours against local boards and the red tape of officialdom. Grantham was devoted to all out-of-door sports ”

“ The population of his new diocese was mainly agricultural, but the watering places on the south coast contained several churches in which the ritual was of a very ‘advanced’ description. Wilberforce was by temperament and conviction a high churchman of the old school, uniting a dislike for ritual with pronounced sacramentarian views. A vehement agitation against the excesses of some of his clergy was on foot, while the Lambeth ‘opinions’ of archbishops Temple and Maclagan had comprehensively condemned the use of incense and portable lights and the reservation of the sacrament. ”

“ In the spring of 1900 he was with difficulty prevented, though the hand of death was visibly upon him, from sailing for South Africa to direct the operations of the Red Cross Aid Society during the Boer war. In 1881 he was made K.C.B. on the occasion of the 'coming of age' of the volunteer force, and he was raised to the peerage in July 1885 under the title of Baron Wantage of Lockinge, becoming lord-lieutenant of Berkshire in the same year. ”

“ Justice Day is a man of the seventeenth century in his views, a catholic as strong as Torquemada, a tory of the old high flier and non-juror type.' Day was vigorously defended from the ministerial benches. During the protracted proceedings of the Parnell commission he maintained an almost unbroken silence, and his cadaverous features were expressive of profound boredom ”

“ A strong radical in domestic politics, especially where the House of Lords and the established church were concerned, he followed Mr. Asquith and Sir Edward Grey during the Boer War, and was a member of the short-lived liberal imperial party under Lord Rosebery. ”

“ His services were greatly in demand in cases which required violent appeals to sentiment and emotion, and he could be forcible and convincing where the issue turned on points of law. Out of court his flow of conversation and his fondness for improving the occasion were the source of endless amusement to his brethren at the bar. A baptist by religion and a radical in politics, he advocated his principles in all companies. In 1903 he was chosen president of the baptist conference, a distinction rarely conferred upon a layman. ”

“ COLLINS, RICHARD HENN, Lord Collins of Kensington (1842–1911) , judge, born in Dublin on 1 January 1842, was third son of Stephen Collins, Q.C., of the Irish bar, by his wife Frances, daughter of William Henn, a master-in-chancery. Entering Trinity College, Dublin, in 1860, he was elected scholar in 1861, and passed his final examinations in 1863 with honours in classics and moral science. He left Dublin without graduating, receiving, however, the honorary degree of LL.D. in 1902. From Dublin he migrated in 1863 to Downing College, Cambridge. ”

“ Jaggers as described by Dickens in 'Great Expectations,' dealt largely with criminal matters, with insolvency, and with civil litigation arising out of fraud, barratry, and the like, and the firm was largely employed by members of the theatrical profession. Besides the general work of the office the younger George Lewis gained experience in advocacy by constant practice in the police courts. ”

“ Owing to a readjustment of the diocesan boundaries, the court of chancery decided that the funds raised for the Wilberforce Mission must be devoted to the diocese of Rochester. Wilberforce retained his canonry and devoted himself with conspicuous success to mission work in Portsmouth and Aldershot. In 1882 he was appointed, on the recommendation of Gladstone, to the newly created see of Newcastle, of which he was consecrated the first bishop on 25 July in Durham cathedral. ”

“ In 1892 Lord Wantage succeeded the duke of Clarence as provincial grand master of the freemasons of Berkshire.
The death of Lord Overstone in 1883 placed a princely fortune at the disposal of Lord Wantage and his wife. The owner of large estates in Berkshire and Northamptonshire, he became one of the leading agriculturists in the country, devoting special attention to the breeding of shire horses and pedigree cattle. ”

“ In January 1886, before he had the opportunity of taking his seat on his re-election for Croydon, he was made a judge of the Queen's Bench Division, in succession to Sir Henry Lopes [q. v. Suppl. I] , and was knighted. It was Lord Halsbury's first judicial appointment, and there were many conflicting claims among conservative lawyers. In 'Whitaker's Almanack' for 1886 the name of Sir John Gorst, then solicitor-general, was printed among the judges instead of that of Grantham. ”

“ I] , one of the leaders of the chancery bar, he rapidly acquired a large practice both in chambers and in court, and in 1875 Baggallay, who was then attorney-general, made him junior equity counsel to the treasury, a post which is held to confer the reversion of a judgeship. Rigby, however, was not content to wait; he took silk in 1880 and attached himself to the court of Mr. Justice Kay [q. v. Suppl. I] , where he obtained a complete ascendancy both over his rivals and over the judge himself. ”

“ After acting for a short time as financial manager of Watney's brewery, he was offered in 1871 the editorship and management of the 'Globe' newspaper, then in the hands of a small conservative syndicate of which Mr. George Cubitt, afterwards Lord Ashcombe, was the leading member. The paper had been run for some years past at a heavy financial loss, but Captain Armstrong, though without any previous experience of journalism, was an excellent man of business with a keen political instinct. ”

“ Educated at a private Jewish school at Edmonton and at University College, London, Lewis was articled to his father in 1851 and was admitted a solicitor in the spring of 1856, joining the firm of Lewis & Lewis, which his father had founded and in which the only other partner was his uncle, George Lewis. ”

“ Born on 16 April 1832, Robert James Lindsay was educated at Eton, and in 1850 received a commission in the Scots guards, then the Scots fusilier guards. Ordered to the Crimea with his regiment in Feb. 1854, he carried the queen's colour at the battle of the Alma as senior subaltern, and distinguished himself by helping to rally the regiment, which had been thrown into momentary confusion by a mistaken order ”

“ In 1872 he was appointed deputy accountant general in the military department of the government of India, which post he held till 1875; on returning to the war office he acted as chairman of a committee which brought about a much-needed decentralisation and effected substantial economies in that office. ”

“ In 1872 he was appointed vicar-general of the province and diocese of Canterbury on the resignation of Sir Travers Twiss [q. v.] ; he had already (in 1868) been made Chancellor of the diocese of Salisbury by Bishop Hamilton. In 1868 he became admiralty advocate-general. He also discharged from 1872 to 1886, under the title of legal adviser to the foreign office, the duties of the now obsolete office of Queen's advocate. ”

“ After the Peace of Paris he was posted to the forces in Canada. In November 1859 he was appointed deputy assistant commissary general, and transferred to the London headquarters; in 1869 he was made assistant director of supplies and transports, resigning his commission in the army and formally entering the civil service. In this capacity he consolidated and greatly simplified the chaotic arrangements which regulated the transport and travelling allowances of the army at home. ”