Henry Wrenfordsley
chief justice of Western Australia (1825–1908)
Sir Henry Thomas Wrenfordsley (1825 – 2 June 1908) was an Irish lawyer and was the second Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Western Australia, which is the highest ranking court in the Australian State of Western Australia.
Early life
Wrenfordsley was born in Middlesex, England, the son of Joseph Wrenfordsley (also known as Wrendfordsley, Wransfordsley and Wrenford Sly), an Irish solicitor, and his wife Louisa, née Bywater. Educated privately in France, he entered Trinity College, Dublin (as Henry Wransfordsly) in March 1841 but did not obtain a degree. Wrenfordsley qualified as a solicitor, became a journeyman lawyer in Dublin and at the English Bar, called to the bar on 30 April 1863, he was junior counsel for the Privy Council office in House of Commons inquiries into the foreign cattle market.
In 1876 Wrenfordsley became a deputy-judge of County courts at Marylebone, Brompton and Brentford.
Career
Wrenfordsley later joined the colonial service and was appointed as a puisne judge at Mauritius in 1877. Wrenfordsley was then appointed Attorney General of Jamaica, then on the death of Sir Archibald Burt in 1879, was made chief justice of Western Australia. He arrived there in the Bangalore on 5 March 1880 accompanied by a lady, probably his sister.
Contemporary accounts suggest Wrenfordsley was given to frequent clashes of personality. One such clash with the Chief Secretary, Lord Gifford, in which he was supported by the Governor, Sir William Robinson led to Sir Henry's removal to the post of Chief Justice of Fiji.
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This entry incorporates text from “Henry Wrenfordsley” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.