Richard Orme Wilberforce, Baron Wilberforce, CMG, OBE, PC (11 March 1907 – 15 February 2003) was a British judge. He was a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary from 1964 to 1982.
Wilberforce spent the first seven years of his life in India, before being sent to England in 1914 on the outbreak of the First World War. He attended five preparatory schools, the last being Sandroyd School.[1] From Sandroyd he went to Winchester College in 1920 where Monty Rendall, the headmaster, convinced him to drop Mathematics, in which he excelled, in favour of Classics, in order to broaden his career options.[1] Wilberforce excelled in his new subject, winning all four top college prizes.[1]
Moving to London, Wilberforce was called to the bar by the Middle Temple in 1932.[3] He was the pupil of the renowned Chancery junior Wilfred Hunt; a fellow pupil was H. L. A. Hart. Wilberforce joined the chambers of Andrew Clark (today called Wilberforce Chambers) and practised at the Chancery bar but, lacking family connections, his earnings were meagre, although they began to increase toward the end of the decade.[1]
Wartime service
Fearing that war was inevitable, Wilberforce joined the Army reserves after Munich in 1938. At the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 Wilberforce volunteered for service in the British Army, though he was advised against it, and was commissioned into the Royal Artillery. In 1940 he was aide-de-camp to Major-General Bernard Paget, who led the British expeditionary force during the Norwegian Campaign.
After the German surrender Wilberforce, by then a brigadier, headed the British legal section of the Allied Control Council. In 1946–7 he returned to London to serve as Under-Secretary at the Control Office for Germany and Austria. For his wartime service, Wilberforce was appointed an OBE and received the American Bronze Star.[3] He retained the rank of honorary brigadier.
While in Berlin, Wilberforce met Yvette Marie Lenoan, a captain in the French Army and the daughter of Roger Lenoan, a judge of the Cour de Cassation posted to Berlin: they married in 1947.
Return to the bar
Wilberforce returned to the bar in 1947 when the Control Office for Germany and Austria was abolished. His old set of chambers had disappeared, forcing him to find new accommodation. His practice was at first very small, and he considered leaving the bar. He acted for Prince Ernest Augustus of Hanover to be recognized as a British subject under the Sophia Naturalization Act 1705. He became a member of the Bar Council in 1951 and was appointed a Queen's Counsel in 1954.
Wilberforce served as a law lord for 18 years, during which he heard 465 appeals, often giving the leading judgment. He was the Senior Law Lord from 1975 to his retirement in 1982. His decisions were highly regarded and covered large areas of the law.
In the early 1970s he chaired two inquiries. The first was into power workers' pay in 1971, and found in the workers' favour. The second was set up during the miners' strike of 1972; thanks to Wiberforce's high work rate, it reported within a week, and recommended pay increases of between £4.50 and £6 to miners.[3]
Wilberforce was Chancellor of the University of Hull between 1978 and 1994, High Steward of the University of Oxford from 1967 to 1990, Visitor of Wolfson College from 1974 to 1990 and Visitor of Linacre College from 1983 to 1990.
Famous judgments
Wilberforce gave many important and prescient judgments, including in the following cases:
