Montagu Stephen Williams

Q.C. QC may refer to: * Queen's Counsel, the title of a King's Counsel, a type of lawyer in Commonwealth countries, during the reign of a queen * Quality control, the process of meeting products and services to consumer expectations Places * Quebec, ...

(30 September 1835 – 23 December 1892) was an English teacher, British Army officer, actor, playwright, barrister and magistrate. Williams was educated at Eton College and started his career as a schoolmaster at Ipswich School. On the outbreak of the Crimean War he joined the

Royal South Lincoln Militia Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, Iowa, a ci ...

, then the 96th Regiment of Foot and finally the

41st (Welch) Regiment of Foot The 41st (Welch) Regiment of Foot was an infantry regiment of the British Army, raised in 1719. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 69th (South Lincolnshire) Regiment of Foot to form the Welch Regiment in 1881. History Early hi ...

, but was too late and never got to fight at Sevastopol. Instead, he spent most of his service in Dublin. In the early 1860s he wrote several farces in partnership with

F. C. Burnand Sir Francis Cowley Burnand (29 November 1836 – 21 April 1917), usually known as F. C. Burnand, was an English comic writer and prolific playwright, best known today as the librettist of Arthur Sullivan's opera ''Cox and Box''. The son of ...

, He later went onto the stage and was called to the bar in 1862. In 1879 he was appointed junior Treasury counsel, retiring from the post in 1886 due to a growth on the

larynx The larynx (), commonly called the voice box, is an organ in the top of the neck involved in breathing, producing sound and protecting the trachea against food aspiration. The opening of larynx into pharynx known as the laryngeal inlet is about ...

which seriously affected his voice, being succeeded by Sir Charles Willie Mathews, 1st Baronet. Williams took up a post as metropolitan

stipendiary magistrate Stipendiary magistrates were magistrates that were paid for their work (they received a stipend). They existed in the judiciaries of the United Kingdom and those of several former British territories, where they sat in the lowest-level criminal ...

in 1886 and was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1888. His clients included

Catherine Wilson Catherine Wilson (1822 – 20 October 1862) was a British murderer who was hanged for one murder, but was generally thought at the time to have committed six others. She worked as a nurse and poisoned her victims after encouraging them to leave ...

, whom he defended twice on murder charges; George Henry Lamson, hanged in 1882 for poisoning his brother-in-law; Percy Lefroy Mapleton, the "railway murderer", hanged in 1881; John Young, acquitted of manslaughter after his opponent in a boxing match died, establishing a legal precedent. He married Louise Keeley, daughter of Robert Keeley in 1858: she died in 1877. He died at

Ramsgate Ramsgate is a seaside resort, seaside town in the district of Thanet District, Thanet in east Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century. In 2001 it had a population of about 40,000. In 2011, according to t ...

in 1892 of uraemia.

Publications

* ''Leaves of a life'', 2 vols, 1890 * ''Later leaves'' (Macmillan, London) 1891 * ''Round London: Down East and Up West'' (Macmillan, London) 1892

References

* * 1835 births 1892 deaths 19th-century King's Counsel People educated at Eton College Stipendiary magistrates (England and Wales) English barristers {{UK-law-bio-stub