WRENFORDSLEY, Sir Henry Thomas (c. 1835-1908)

chief justice of Western Australia

the son of Joseph H. Wren was born probably about the year 1835, and was educated in France and at Trinity College, Dublin. He was called to the bar of the Middle Temple in 1863, and for a time was a junior counsel for the privy council office. He acted at times as a county court judge in England and in 1877 was appointed a puisne judge at Mauritius. He was also procureur and advocate-general, and was prominent in connexion with the passing of a labour law, the preparation and publication of a magisterial code, and the introduction of reforms in the supreme court. In 1880 he was appointed chief justice of Western Australia where he assisted in revising the local statutes and prepared and published rules of procedure. He was then appointed chief justice of Fiji and judicial commissioner for the Western Pacific. His stay in Fiji was short as he found the climate unsuitable, and from February to June 1883 he became acting-governor of Western Australia. In 1884 he was an acting-judge of the supreme court of Tasmania, and took a similar position at Melbourne in 1888. In the following year he was appointed acting chief justice at Perth. He became chief justice of the Leeward Islands in 1891, and held the position until his retirement in 1902. He died at Antibes in the south of France on 2 June 1908. He was knighted in 1883.

The Times, 10 June 1908; P. Mennell, The Dictionary of Australasian Biography; Debrett's Peerage, etc., 1908.