Name Roland Williams | ||
Sir Roland Lomax Bowdler Vaughan Williams (31 December 1838 – 8 December 1916) was an English lawyer; from 1897 to 1914 he was a Lord Justice of the Court of Appeal. He was an authority on the laws of bankruptcy, and wrote a book (1870) that remained the standard English work on the subject for many years.
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Life and career
Vaughan Williams was born in Bloomsbury, London, the fifth son of Edward Vaughan Williams and his wife, Jane Margaret, née Bagot. Among his brothers was Arthur, who became a clergyman and was the father of the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, graduating in 1860. He was called to the bar in 1861 and was a barrister of Lincoln's Inn. In 1870 he published The Law and Practice of Bankruptcy, a work that was for many years the standard English authority on the subject.
Vaughan Williams became a Queen's Counsel in 1889, and the following year was raised to the bench as a Judge of the Queen's Bench Division, from which he was promoted in 1897 to be a Lord Justice of the Court of Appeal; he was appointed to the Privy Council at the same time. In 1906 he was appointed chairman of the Royal Commission on the disestablishment of the Church in Wales; the success of the commission and the smooth implementation of its recommendations were largely attributable to him.
In 1865 he married Laura Susannah, daughter of Edmund Lomax of Surrey; they had one son who survived to adulthood and two who did not.
Vaughan Williams died at his home in Abinger, Surrey, at the age of 77.
Notable cases
During his legal career Vaughan Williams participated in a number of important judicial decisions.