Richard Wilberforce, Baron Wilberforce

Born in Jalandhar, India, Richard Wilberforce was the son of Samuel Wilberforce, ICS, later a judge of the Lahore High Court, and of Katherine Wilberforce, the daughter of John Sheepshanks, Bishop of Norwich. His great-grandfather was Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Winchester, and his great-great-grandfather was the abolitionist William Wilberforce, a connection which had much influence upon him.[1][2]

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]

From Winchester Wilberforce entered New College, Oxford, where he was a scholar, obtaining firsts in both Classical Moderations (1928) and Literae humaniores (1930). He won the Craven, Hertford, and Ireland scholarships in Classics, as well as the Eldon Law Scholarship. In 1932, on his third attempt, Wilberforce was elected a prize fellow of All Souls College: the two other successful candidates that year were Isaiah Berlin and Patrick Reilly.[2] Wilberforce remained a fellow of the college until his death seventy years later.[1]

Moving to London, Wilberforce was called to the bar by the Middle Temple in 1932.[2] 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]

Wilberforce was appointed to the High Court in 1961 and assigned to the Chancery Division,[2] receiving the customary knighthood. On 1 October 1964, after only three years' service, he was elevated to the House of Lords as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, and was made a life peer as Baron Wilberforce, of the City and County of Kingston-upon-Hull;[3] he was also sworn of the Privy Council. He is the only English judge in recent times to have been appointed to the House of Lords straight from the High Court, without first serving in the Court of Appeal.[2]

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.

He was president of the Anti-Slavery Society from 1971.[2]

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.[2]

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.

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

• 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)

• The Guardian obituary