Richard Wilberforce, Baron Wilberforce

The Right Honourable The Lord Wilberforce QC, PC
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Lord of Appeal in Ordinary
In office 1964–1982
Personal details
Born	11 March 1907
Died	15 February 2003 (aged 95)
Nationality	English
Alma mater	New College, Oxford
Profession	Barrister, Judge

Richard Orme Wilberforce, Baron Wilberforce, QC, PC (11 March 1907 – 15 February 2003), was a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary in the House of Lords from 1964 to 1982.

Life

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. He grew up in India and attended Norwich School, Sandroyd School, Winchester College and New College, Oxford, and was later elected a Fellow of All Souls 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.

Famous judgments

Lord Wilberforce gave many important and prescient judgments, including his judgments in the following cases:

• Eastham v Newcastle United FC [1964] Ch 413
• National Provincial Bank Ltd v Ainsworth [1965] AC 1175
• Boardman v Phipps [1967] 2 AC 46
• Boys v Chaplin [1969] 2 All ER 1085
• Barclays Bank Ltd v Quistclose Investments Ltd [1970] AC 567
• McPhail v Doulton [1971] AC 424
• Prenn v Simmonds [1971] 1 WLR 1381
• Ebrahimi v Westbourne Galleries Ltd [1973] AC 360
• Howard Smith Ltd v Ampol Petroleum Ltd [1974] AC 821
• Anns v Merton London Borough Council [1978] AC 728
• Johnson v Agnew [1979] 1 All ER 883
• Photo Production Ltd v Securicor Transport Ltd [1980] AC 827
• Williams & Glyn's Bank v Boland [1980] UKHL 4
• College of Nursing of the United Kingdom v Department of Health and Social Security (1981)
• Ramsay v IRC [1982] AC 300
• Brinkibon Ltd v Stahag Stahl und Stahlwarenhandelsgesellschaft mbH [1983] 2 AC 34
• McLoughlin v O'Brian [1983] 1 AC 410
• Frazer v Walker and Radomski
• R v Inland Revenue Commissioners, ex parte National Federation of Self-Employed & Small Business Ltd

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Publications

• with Alan Campbell and Neil Elles, The Law of Restrictive Practices and Monopolies (2nd edn London, Sweet and Maxwell 1966) LCCN 66-70116
• Law and economics: Being the presidential address of the Rt. Hon. Lord Wilberforce (Holdsworth Club 1966)

External links

• The Guardian obituary