The Right Honourable The Lord Wilberforce CMG OBE: In Memoriam

Abstract

RICHARD ORME Wilberforce1 was born in India at Jullundur on 7 March 1907. He died in London on 15 February 2003. His father Samuel was in the Indian Civil Service, originally as an administrator, later as a judge of the High Court in Lahore. His grandfather Reginald Wilberforce, as a young ensign in the 52nd Light Infantry, reached India just in time for the outbreak of the Mutiny in May 1857; he fought in the retaking of Delhi and in the suppression of the Mutiny. Reginald's father was Samuel Wilberforce, the famous and disputatious Bishop of Oxford (later of Winchester). The bishop's father was William Wilberforce, the emancipator. So in Richard's recent ancestry we find administration, the law, arms, intellectual debate, and a passion for freedom. All were to manifest themselves in his own life. He was proud of his ancestry, publishing the letters of his father, and the Mutiny chapter written by his grandfather and anxious to defend the Bishop of Oxford from crude misrepresentation in the Darwin controversy. But undoubtedly the greatest influence was William Wilberforce. Richard studied his life and works and placed him on a pinnacle.