Sir Victor Murray Coutts-Trotter (12 May 1874 – 12 May 1929) was a British barrister who was Chief Justice of the

Madras High Court The Madras High Court is a High Court in India. It has appellate jurisdiction over the state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry. It is located in Chennai, and is the third oldest high court of India after the Calcutta High C ...

from 1924 to 1929.

Biography

Son of Alexander Trotter, of Newcastle and London,''Who was who in British India'', John F. Riddick, Greenwood Press, 1998, p. 367 Trotter was educated at

St. Paul's School, London (''By Faith and By Learning'') , established = , closed = , type = Independent school Public school , religion = Church of England , president = , he ...

and

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

, and

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 ...

from the Inner Temple. In 1901 he stood 1st class in classical Moderations and in the Final School of Humanities Trotter won Herford and Eldon Law Scholarships. He became Assistant Professor of Greek at the University of Liverpool in 1898. Trotter also served as Vinerian Professor of Law and Lecturer in Criminal Law and Evidence in Oxford. He worked under Justice Sir

Walter George Salis Schwabe Sir Walter George Salis Schwabe (3 March 1873 – 20 April 1931) was a British barrister and Chief Justice of the Madras High Court from 1921 to 1924. Schwabe was the second son of Liberal politician Maj.-Gen. George Salis Schwabe, C.B., b ...

as a junior

Barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

in the

Madras Presidency The Madras Presidency, or the Presidency of Fort St. George, also known as Madras Province, was an administrative subdivision (presidency) of British India. At its greatest extent, the presidency included most of southern India, including the ...

. In January 1915 he became a puisne judge of the Madras High Court and was appointed Chief Justice on 3 June 1924. He was subsequently knighted and resigned in 1929 due to ill-health; he died at sea on the journey back to England on his 55th birthday. He had married in 1905, Dorothy Evelyn Mary, daughter of Admiralty clerk George W. Godfrey (author of a one-act comic play, "My Milliner's Bill").Catalogue of Copyright Entries, Part 1, Group 3- Dramatic Compositions and Motion Pictures, vol. 2, no. 1, Library of Congress Copyright Office, 1929, p. 435 They had two sons and two daughters.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Trotter, Murray Coutts 1874 births 1929 deaths People from Newcastle upon Tyne Knights Bachelor Legal scholars of the University of Oxford Chief Justices of the Madras High Court Members of the Inner Temple British India judges English barristers People who died at sea