William Rees-Davies (judge)

Sir William Rees Morgan Davies (May 1863 – 14 April 1939[1]), more commonly known as William Rees-Davies, was a British politician, lawyer and colonial judge. His last appointment was as Chief Justice of Hong Kong.

William Rees-Davies MP

He was the father of William Rupert Rees-Davies, who was also a politician and lawyer.

Early life

After attending Eton, Rees-Davies studied at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he graduated with a BA degree in 1885. He was called to the Bar of the Inner Temple in 1887 and joined the South Wales Circuit.[2]

Parliamentary service

He was a Liberal Member of Parliament for Pembrokeshire, from July 1892 to 1898,[3] having succeeded his father Sir William Davies in the seat. He was private secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir William Harcourt from 1893 to 1895. He was succeeded by the Liberal politician, John Philipps, 1st Viscount St Davids.

Rees-Davies in 1908, when he was Attorney General of Hong Kong

He left Parliament on being appointed Attorney General of The Bahamas.[4] He stayed in the Bahamas until 1902 and acted as Chief Justice at times. He was appointed King's Advocate in Cyprus in June 1902, serving as such until 1907.

In 1907, he was appointed Attorney General of Hong Kong. In that position he was entitled to a seat on the Executive Council and Legislative Council.[5] He was appointed a King's Counsel in Hong Kong in 1908.

In 1912, he was appointed Chief Justice of Hong Kong succeeding Sir Francis Piggott. He was knighted in 1913.[6]

Rees-Davies retired as Chief Justice in 1924 and returned to England. He was succeeded by Sir Henry Gollan.

Death

He died on 14 April 1939 in, Folkestone, England.[7]

gollark: I think basically all the conveniently expressible "maximize X" things break horribly if actually taken seriously, and I also don't want people to just "have their own personal prescriptions about what is a good quality in the world", since it might severely disagree with mine.
gollark: BRB, maximizing paperclips.
gollark: This is at least... internally consistent and whatever, I think, it's just rather horrifying and not something I want to be judged by or anyone to be judged by.
gollark: Oh, and if for some reason you're an *incredibly* self-confident person who thinks all acts they do are right, you'll turn out maximally non-evil.
gollark: Being vaguely aware of that sort of thing, and also that I live in a relatively comfortable position in what is among the richest societies ever, I feel bad about *not* doing more things, which would cause me to be more evil than someone who just ignores this issue forever, which is not, according to arbitrary moral intuitions I have™, something which an evilness measuring thing should say.

References
  1. http://www.leighrayment.com/commons/Pcommons1.htm
  2. Twentieth Century Impressions of Hong Kong and Shanghai, p. 107.
  3. The Liberal Year Book for 1906, p. 275.
  4. The Constitutional Year Book (1899), p. 161.
  5. Twentieth Century Impressions of Hong Kong and Shanghai, p. 107.
  6. London Gazette, 14 February 1913, p. 1147.
  7. The Solicitors' Journal, Volume 83, p. 319.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
William Davies		 Member of Parliament for Pembrokeshire
1892 – 98		 Succeeded by
John Philipps
Legal offices
Preceded by
Sir Francis Piggott		 Chief Justice of Hong Kong
1912–24		 Succeeded by
Sir Henry Gollan
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.