Alfred Wills

Sir Alfred Wills PC (11 December 1828 - 9 August 1912) was an English High Court judge and a well-known mountaineer. He was the third President of the Alpine Club from 1863-1865.

Early life

Wills was the second son of William Wills, JP, of Edgbaston, Birmingham, and of his wife Sarah Wills, a daughter of Jeremiah Ridout. He was educated at a school in Edgbaston and at University College London, where he held exhibitions and scholarships in Mathematics, Classics and Law, graduating BA in 1849 and LLB in 1851.

Legal career

Wills became a barrister from Middle Temple during 1851 and became an official of Queen's Counsel during 1872. He was first Recorder of Sheffield, 1881-84; a Judge of the Queen's and King's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice, 1884-1905, President of the Railway and Canal Commission, 1888-1893, and Treasurer of the Middle Temple, 1892-1893.

During his career as a judge, Alfred Wills notably presided over the trial in which Oscar Wilde was convicted for "committing acts of gross indecency with other male persons". Interestingly, one of Oscar Wilde's middle names was "Wills".

With his father William Wills, he co-authored An essay on the principles of circumstantial evidence : illustrated by numerous cases (1905), still a standard text often cited.

Mountaineer

The ascent of the Wetterhorn by Wills and his party during 1854, which Wills mistakenly believed was the first (it was actually first climbed during 1844) was the beginning of the so-called golden age of alpinism. From that time on, climbing mountains as sport became fashionable.

He was the third President of the Alpine Club from 1863-1865.

A mountain refuge near Chamonix still bears his name.

Publications

Wanderings among the High Alps
The Eagle's Nest
Wills on Circumstantial Evidence (ed.)
Rendu's Théorie des Glaciers de la Savioe (translation)

Honours

Knighted, 1884
Privy Councillor, 1905

Family

Wills married firstly, during 1854, Lucy, daughter of George Martineau. She died in 1860, and in 1861 he married secondly Bertha, daughter of Thomas Lombe Taylor, of Starston, Norfolk. His second wife died during 1906. He had three sons and two daughters.