Sir John Wilfrid Bourne KCB QC (27 January 1922 – 19 October 1999), known as Sir Wilfrid Bourne, was a British lawyer and civil servant who held the position of

Permanent Secretary to the Lord Chancellor's Office The Permanent Secretary to the Lord Chancellor's Department was the most senior civil servant in the Lord Chancellor's Department and a senior member of Her Majesty's Civil Service. Officially titled Her Majesty's Permanent Under-Secretary of State ...

from 1977 to 1982.Obituary: Sir Wilfrid Bourne
''The Independent''. Retrieved 6 January 2021.

Family and education

Bourne was the second son of

Robert Croft Bourne Robert Croft Bourne (15 July 1888 – 7 August 1938) was a British rower who competed in the 1912 Summer Olympics, and a Conservative Party politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1924 to 1938. Biography Bourne was born at Bodin ...

, MP for

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

from 1924 to 1938, and Lady Hester Margaret Cairns, daughter of Wilfred Cairns, 4th Earl Cairns. Bourne's great-grandfather, the

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

politician Hugh Cairns, had served as

Lord Chancellor The lord chancellor, formally the lord high chancellor of Great Britain, is the highest-ranking traditional minister among the Great Officers of State in Scotland and England in the United Kingdom, nominally outranking the prime minister. The ...

under

Benjamin Disraeli Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, (21 December 1804 – 19 April 1881) was a British statesman and Conservative politician who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He played a central role in the creation o ...

. He was educated at

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...

, entering as a

King's Scholar A King's Scholar is a foundation scholar (elected on the basis of good academic performance and usually qualifying for reduced fees) of one of certain public schools. These include Eton College; The King's School, Canterbury; The King's School ...

and Newcastle Scholar, and was Captain of the School in 1940. He obtained a scholarship to

New College, Oxford New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as its feeder school, New College is one of the oldest colleges at th ...

, and took a First in Mods before joining the army. In 1958, Bourne married Elizabeth Juliet Fox, with whom he had two sons.

Career

During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Bourne served with the

Rifle Brigade The Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort's Own) was an infantry rifle regiment of the British Army formed in January 1800 as the "Experimental Corps of Riflemen" to provide sharpshooters, scouts, and skirmishers. They were soon renamed the "Rifle ...

in North Africa, Italy, Normandy and north-west Europe. He was demobilised in 1945 and returned to the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

to read Jurisprudence, in which he obtained another First, and was awarded the

Eldon Law Scholarship The Eldon Law Scholarship is a scholarship awarded to students from the University of Oxford who wish to study for the English Bar. Applicants must either have obtained a first class honours degree in the Final Honours School, or obtained a distin ...

. He entered 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 Inn an ...

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 1948. He joined the chambers of

Melford Stevenson Sir Aubrey Melford Steed Stevenson (17 October 1902 – 26 December 1987), usually known as Sir Melford Stevenson, was an English barrister and, later, a High Court judge, whose judicial career was marked by his controversial conduct and ...

(later a High Court judge) and served on the

Oxford circuit The courts of assize, or assizes (), were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the quarter sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes ex ...

. Bourne entered the British

Civil Service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

in 1956, joining the

Lord Chancellor's Department The Lord Chancellor's Department was a United Kingdom government department answerable to the Lord Chancellor with jurisdiction over England and Wales. Created in 1885 as the Lord Chancellor's Office with a small staff to assist the Lord Chancell ...

, and later became Principal Assistant Solicitor (1970-1972) and Deputy Secretary (1972-1977). He was also Private Secretary to

David Maxwell Fyfe David Patrick Maxwell Fyfe, 1st Earl of Kilmuir, (29 May 1900 – 27 January 1967), known as Sir David Maxwell Fyfe from 1942 to 1954 and as Viscount Kilmuir from 1954 to 1962, was a British Conservative politician, lawyer and judge who combine ...

, and secretary to the

Law Reform Committee The Law Reform Committee was a committee in England and Wales appointed by the Lord Chancellor "to consider, having regard especially to judicial decisions, what changes are desirable in such legal doctrines as the Lord Chancellor may from time to ...

. In 1977 Bourne was appointed

and

Clerk of the Crown in Chancery A clerk is a white-collar worker who conducts general office tasks, or a worker who performs similar sales-related tasks in a retail environment. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include record keeping, filing, staffing service ...

and held both positions until his retirement in 1982.

Honours

Bourne was made a Companion of the

Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved Bathing#Medieval ...

(CB) in

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

''Supplement to the London Gazette''
(1 January 1975). Retrieved 6 January 2021. and a Knight Commander (KCB) in

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

. He became a

Queen's Counsel In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of ...

(QC) in 1981.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bourne, Wilfrid 1922 births 1999 deaths People educated at Eton College Alumni of New College, Oxford 20th-century British lawyers Permanent Secretaries to the Lord Chancellor's Office British King's Counsel Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Lawyers awarded knighthoods