OBITUARY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21906, 15 September 1934, Page 13

OBITUARY

SIR ERNEST WILD RECORDER OF LONDON (Received September 14, 5.45 p.m.) LONDON, Sept. 13 The death is announced of the Recorder of London. Sir Ernest Wild. He had been the presiding Judge at the Old Bailey since 1922. The late Sir Ernest Edward Wild, who was knighted in 1918, was appointed by the Court of Aldermen at Guildhall in March,l922, to the position of Recorder of London and High Steward of Southwark, rendered vacant by the resignation through ill-health of -Sir Forrest Fulton, K.C. Born at Norwich on January 1, 1861. Sir Ernest was educated at Norwich School and Jesus College, Cambridge, where he took honours in law and history, and gained a Winchester Reading Prize. He was called to the Bar at the Middle Temple in 1893, and took silk in 1912. From 1907 to 1910 he sat for Holborn in the London County Council, and from 1918 to 1922 represented the Upton Division of West Ham as a Coalition Conservative in the House of Commons.

After leaving Cambridge Sir Ernest was intensely interested in civic life and history, and the City of London had a very real place in his affections. He often delivered public discourses on civic and historical subjects. During his 30 years at the Bar he took part in many notable murder trials, prominent among them beinu; the Peasenhall case, where the jury disagreed twice, and the defendant, whom Sir Ernest represented, was subsequently released. Sir Ernest also had a wide experience of the civil side of the law, and for many years was judge of the Norwich Guildhall Court of Record, being appointed to that position at the early age of 27. Sir Ernest's career possessed points of similarity with that of Sir Forrest Fulton, whom he succeded. Both were educated at Norwich School, both represented West Ham, and both were elected to ilie office of Recorder at the age of SH. Sir F.rnest was a past master of tho Glass Sellers' Company. Ho had considerable literary attainments, one of his publications being " The Lamp of Destiny," a volume of poems. He was a Freemason, a good golfer and an Alpine climber.