Sir Alfred Wills (11 December 1828 – 9 August 1912) was a judge of the High Court of England and Wales and a well-known

mountaineer Mountaineering or alpinism, is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending tall mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas. Indoor climbing, sport climbing, a ...

. He was the third President of the

Alpine Club The first alpine club, the Alpine Club, based in the United Kingdom, was founded in London in 1857 as a gentlemen's club. It was once described as: :"a club of English gentlemen devoted to mountaineering, first of all in the Alps, members of whi ...

, from 1863 to 1865.

Early life

Wills was the second son of William Wills, JP, of

Edgbaston Edgbaston () is an affluent suburban area of central Birmingham, England, historically in Warwickshire, and curved around the southwest of the city centre. In the 19th century, the area was under the control of the Gough-Calthorpe family ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

, and of his wife Sarah Wills, a daughter of Jeremiah Ridout. He was educated at

King Edward's School, Birmingham King Edward's School (KES) is an independent day school for boys in the British public school tradition, located in Edgbaston, Birmingham. Founded by King Edward VI in 1552, it is part of the Foundation of the Schools of King Edward VI in Bir ...

and at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

, where he held exhibitions and scholarships in Mathematics, Classics and Law, graduating BA in 1849 and LLB in 1851.

Legal career

Wills was called to the

bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar ( ...

by the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's I ...

in 1851 and was appointed

Queen's Counsel In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel (post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of a queen, is a lawyer (usually a barrister o ...

in 1872. He was first Recorder of Sheffield, 1881–84; a Judge of the Queen's and King's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice, 1884–1905, President of the

Railway and Canal Commission {{Use dmy dates, date=April 2022 The Railway and Canal Commission was a British court of record A court of record is a trial court or appellate court in which a record of the proceedings is captured and preserved, for the possibility of appeal. ...

, 1888–1893, and Treasurer of the Middle Temple, 1892–1893. During his career as a judge, his most notable achievement was presiding over the trial in which

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

was convicted for "committing acts of

gross indecency Gross indecency is a crime in some parts of the English-speaking world, originally used to criminalize sexual activity between men that fell short of sodomy, which required penetration. The term was first used in British law in a statute of the B ...

with other male persons". Willis sentenced Wilde to two years' hard labour. The judge described the sentence, the maximum allowed, as "totally inadequate for a case such as this," and that the case was "the worst case I have ever tried". Wilde's response "And I? May I say nothing, my Lord?" was drowned out in cries of "Shame" in the courtroom. With his father William Wills, he co-authored ''An essay on the principles of circumstantial evidence : illustrated by numerous cases'' (1905), still a standard text often cited.

Mountaineer

The ascent of the

Wetterhorn The Wetterhorn (3,692 m) is a peak in the Swiss Alps towering above the village of Grindelwald. Formerly known as Hasle Jungfrau, it is one of three summits on a mountain named the "Wetterhörner", the highest of which is the Mittelhorn (3,704 ...

above

Grindelwald , neighboring_municipalities = Brienz, Brienzwiler, Fieschertal (VS), Guttannen, Innertkirchen, Iseltwald, Lauterbrunnen, Lütschental, Meiringen, Schattenhalb , twintowns = Azumi, now Matsumoto (Japan) Grindelwald is a village and ...

in the Bernes Alps by Wills and his party in 1854, which Wills mistakenly believed was the first (actually summited a decade earlier by local guides Melchior Bannholzer and Hans Jaun on 31 August 1844) is considered the beginning of the so-called

golden age of alpinism The golden age of alpinism was the decade in mountaineering between Alfred Wills's ascent of the Wetterhorn in 1854 and Edward Whymper's ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865, during which many major peaks in the Alps saw their first ascents. Promin ...

. His account of the expedition helped make climbing mountains as sport fashionable. He was the third President of the

from 1863 to 1865. A

mountain hut A mountain hut is a building located high in the mountains, generally accessible only by foot, intended to provide food and shelter to mountaineers, climbers and hikers. Mountain huts are usually operated by an Alpine Club or some organization ...

near Chamonix bears his name: the

Refuge Alfred Wills Refuge Alfred Wills is a mountain hut in the French Alps in Haute-Savoie. The current shelter, bearing the same name, was built in 1981. At in altitude, it is the site of the former pasture Anterne more commonly called "Cottages Anterne". It is s ...

Publications

*''Wanderings among the High Alps'' *''The Eagle's Nest'' *''Wills on Circumstantial Evidence'' (ed.) *''Rendu's Théorie des Glaciers de la Savioe'' (translation)

Honours

Knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...

ed, 1884 *

Privy Councillor A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mo ...

, 1905

Family

In 1854 Wills married Lucy, daughter of George Martineau. She died in 1860, and in 1861 he married Bertha, daughter of Thomas Lombe Taylor, of

Starston Starston is a small village and civil parish in Norfolk. It covers an area of and had a population of 321 in 123 households at the 2001 census, the population increasing to 331 at the 2011 Census. The Starston village sign features a wind pum ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the Nor ...

. His second wife died in 1906. He had three sons and two daughters.

References

'' Vanity Fair (British magazine), Vanity Fair'', The Honourable Sir Alfred Wills, 9 W. Res. L. Rev. 1 reprinted (1957) in the

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law The ''Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law'' is a legal journal produced by student editors at Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Cleveland, Ohio. It was established in 1968, and published three times per year by student ...

(accessed 20 December 2020)

External links

A good explanation of "An essay on the principles of circumstantial evidence" and its importance
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wills, Alfred, British mountain climbers 1828 births 1912 deaths English mountain climbers Presidents of the Alpine Club (UK) Queen's Bench Division judges Alumni of University College London English barristers Members of the Middle Temple 19th-century King's Counsel Knights Bachelor Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Members of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council 19th-century English judges 20th-century English judges