Sir Thomas Townsend Bucknill (18 April 1845 – 4 October 1915) was an English judge of the

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literature ...

and Edwardian eras, a Member of Parliament and a

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 mon ...

.Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition

Biography

'Tommy' Bucknill was born at Exminster in 1845, the second son of Sir John Charles Bucknill, an asylum doctor and psychiatrist who was knighted in 1894 in recognition of his services as one of the founders of the Volunteer Movement. Thomas Bucknill was educated at Westminster School and afterwards at Geneva. He 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 1868, became a Queen's Counsel in 1885, and a bencher of the Inner Temple in 1891. From 1885 to 1899 he was Recorder of

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...

. He edited ''The Cunningham Reports'' and Sir S. Cook's ''Common Pleas Reports'', and was a leading Counsel on the Admiralty Circuit and on the Western Circuit. He sat as the Conservative Member of Parliament for Epsom from 1892 to 1899, in which year he was raised to the bench, succeeding Sir Henry Hawkins, and was knighted. In 1914 he was appointed a

. Bucknill was a prominent

Freemason Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

, having been initiated in 1873 into Lodge of Good Report No.136 and becoming the Provincial Grand Master for Surrey from 1903 to 1915. Among the notable cases tried before Bucknill was that in 1912 of

poison Poison is a chemical substance that has a detrimental effect to life. The term is used in a wide range of scientific fields and industries, where it is often specifically defined. It may also be applied colloquially or figuratively, with a broa ...

er Frederick Seddon, who, on being found guilty of murder appealed directly to Bucknill as a brother Mason and in the name of ' The Great Architect Of The Universe' to overturn the jury's verdict. According to some sources he gave the First Degree sign, according to others the Sign of Grief and Distress, begging for mercy. Bucknill is reported as having said, with some emotion:

"It is not for me to harrow your feelings – try to make peace with your Maker. We both belong to the same Brotherhood, and though that can have no influence with me this is painful beyond words to have to say what I am saying, but our Brotherhood does not encourage crime, it condemns it."

Bucknill died at Hylands House, Epsom on 4 October 1915. He was the father of Sir Alfred Townsend Bucknill (1880–1963), also a High Court Judge and who became a

in 1945 and John Alexander Strachey Bucknill who served as Chief Justice of the

Straits Settlements The Straits Settlements were a group of British territories located in Southeast Asia. Headquartered in Singapore for more than a century, it was originally established in 1826 as part of the territories controlled by the British East India Comp ...

and Puisne Judge in Patna, India.

Arms

Portrayals

* In the 1981 TV series ''Lady Killers'' Christopher Banks played Bucknill in an episode entitled ''Root of All Evil''.''Lady Killers''
on the Internet Movie Database

Notes

External links

*
Bucknill
in '' The New York Times'' 16 January 1899 {{DEFAULTSORT:Bucknill, Thomas Townsend 1845 births 1915 deaths Queen's Bench Division judges People educated at Westminster School, London Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom UK MPs 1892–1895 UK MPs 1895–1900 Members of the Inner Temple Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Knights Bachelor