OBITUARY.
JUDGE BAGSHAWE, K.C.
Only last week it fell to us to have to record the death of Canon Bagshawe of Richmond, and now it is our sad duty to have to announce the death of his eldest brother, Judge Bagshawe, K.C., which occurred with painful suddenness, on Monday evening, at King’s Cross Station. He is thus the third brother whose death has occurred within a period of about four months, Mr. Clement Walter Bagshawe, of Dover, having died at Chiswick in the beginning of July. According to the evidence given at the inquest on Tuesday before Dr. Danford Thomas, coroner for Central London, at the St. Pancras coroner’s-court, it appears that Judge Bagshawe, who generally enjoyed good health, attended, on Monday, the funeral of his brother, Canon Bagshawe, at Richmond Cemetery. After leaving the cemetery he returned home to South Kensington, and partook of some refreshment. With his son and a son in-law he left his residence in a cab to proceed to King’s Cross, but owing to the dense fog they had to abandon the cab and go by train to King’s Cross Station, and thence they walked through the subway to the Great Northern terminus. Judge Bagshawe, While walking along the platform, was noticed to be greatly affected by the dense fog. He staggered and fell insensible on the platform. He Was carried into an adjoining waiting-room, and medical aid was sought, but life was found to be extinct. Dr. Gilchrist deposed that in his opinion death had resulted from syncope whilst suffering from heart disease. Dr. John Anderson, of Belsize Park, Hampstead, stated that he had known Judge Bagshawe for the last 35 years, and that for the last two years he had suffered from heart affection. The jury returned a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence. Mr. William Henry Gunning Bagshawe, K.C., Judge of County Courts, was the eldest son of Mr. Henry Ridgard Bagshawe, Q.C., who was also a County Court Judge and a convert, and was born on August 18, 1825. He graduated at the University of London in 1843 and was called to the Bar at the Middle Temple in 1848. Practising as a conveyancer and equity draftsman, Mr. Bagshawe acquired a reputation as an excellent pleader and a sound and accurate lawyer. He was a familiar figure in the Rolls Court in the great days when Jessel used to get through nearly as much work as all the three ViceChancellors. As a leader before that formidable Judge, who was not tolerant of either dulness or slowness, Mr. Bagshawe held his own and enjoyed a substantial practice, though far inferior to that of the late Lord justice Chitty or the present Lord Davey. They mere a distinguished body within the Bar and few of them survive. His qualities, indeed,’were those of a junior rather than of a leader, and he did not take silk until 1874, in the same year as Chitty. His manner was somewhat cold and unsympathetic, but he was always to the point and treated with respect by the Judge. One of the most famous cases in which he ;was engaged was that of “Agar-Ellis v. Lascelles,” which involved-the right of the father to bring up his children in his own faith against the wishes of the mother and in contravention of his own promise on the marriage. Mr. Agar-Ellis was a Protestant, and his wife, the Hon. Harriet Stonor, was a daughter of Lord Camoys. Mr. Bagshawe, Q.C., and his younger brother, Mr. F. G. Bagshawe, were led by the present Lord Chancellor, and appeared for Mrs. Agar-Ellis. It was a painful story and there was some conflict of evidence, but the judgment of the Court of Appeal in affirmance of that of Vice-Chancellor Malins, delivered by Lord Justice James, was based on the right of the father to direct his children’s education, though the general sympathy at the time was certainly with the mother.
The above text was found on p.29, 9th November 1901 in “The Tablet: The International Catholic News Weekly.” Reproduced with kind permission of the Publisher” The Tablet can be found at http://www.thetablet.co.uk .
