Richard Webster, 1st Viscount Alverstone
British barrister, politician and judge (1842-1915)
Richard Everard Webster, 1st Viscount Alverstone, (22 December 1842 – 15 December 1915) was a British barrister, politician and judge who served in many high political and judicial offices.
Background and education
Webster was the second son of Thomas Webster QC and Elizabeth Calthrop. He was educated at King's College School and Charterhouse, and Trinity College, Cambridge. 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 to Alverstone, Isle of Wight, every four years.
His interest in cricket and foot-racing was maintained in later life. He refereed races for the early Amateur Athletic Club and set rules for long jump and shot put. He was President of Surrey County Cricket Club from 1895 until his death, and of the Marylebone Cricket Club in 1903.
Legal, judicial and political career
Webster was called to the bar in 1868, and became QC only ten years afterwards. His practice was chiefly in commercial, railway and patent cases until (June 1885) he was appointed Attorney-General in the Conservative Government in the exceptional circumstances of never having been Solicitor-General, and not at the time occupying a seat in parliament.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q334251. VIAF identifies the subject as 69701452. The Library of Congress control number is no94040901. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1842, 1915, 1895 and 1903.
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This entry incorporates text from “Richard Webster, 1st Viscount Alverstone” 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.