Frederick Solly-Flood, QC (7 August 1801 – 13 May 1888) was a British lawyer who became

Attorney General of Gibraltar The Attorney General of Gibraltar is the chief legal advisor of HM Government of Gibraltar. He combines the functions of Attorney General and Director of Public Prosecution and is also an ex officio member of the Gibraltar Parliament. The Attorney ...

Life and career

He was born the son of fishmonger Richard Solly of London and inherited estates in County Wexford, Ireland from his maternal grandfather Sir Frederick Flood, Bt, assuming the additional name of Flood in 1818 by

letters patent Letters patent ( la, litterae patentes) ( always in the plural) are a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order issued by a monarch, president or other head of state, generally granting an office, right, monopoly, titl ...

. He was educated briefly at

Harrow School (The Faithful Dispensation of the Gifts of God) , established = (Royal Charter) , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent schoolBoarding school , religion = Church of E ...

and at

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, where he was awarded BA in 1825 and MA in 1828. He entered

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

and was

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

in 1828, afterwards setting up in legal practice in London and becoming King's Council. Financial difficulties as a result of gambling forced him to sell his legal practice and accept in 1866 the post of

Attorney-General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

in Gibraltar. During his tenure there the sailing ship ''

Mary Celeste ''Mary Celeste'' (; often erroneously referred to as Marie Celeste) was an American-registered merchant brigantine, best known for being discovered adrift and deserted in the Atlantic Ocean off the Azores Islands on December 4, 1872. The Cana ...

'' arrived, bearing a three person salvage crew, who claimed the salvage prize. Solly-Flood accused the salvage crew of piracy, claiming they had killed her original crew. In the event the Judge was persuaded to limit the salvage prize to a fraction of its true value. Flood was described by a historian of the Mary Celeste affair as a man "whose arrogance and pomposity were inversely proportional to his IQ" and as "... the sort of man who, once he had made up his mind about something, couldn't be shifted." Solly-Flood held the post of attorney general until 1877.

Death

He died in Gibraltar in 1888 and was buried in Gibraltar Cemetery. He had married Mary Williamson and had seven children, one of which was General Sir Frederick Richard Solly-Flood K.C.B.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Solly-Flood, Frederick 1801 births 1888 deaths 19th-century English lawyers Lawyers from London People educated at Harrow School Members of Lincoln's Inn English King's Counsel Attorneys-General of Gibraltar British King's Counsel Mary Celeste