William Grantham was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 politician.

Biography

He was educated at King's College School

King's College School

King's College School, commonly referred to as KCS, King's, or KCS Wimbledon, is an independent school for day pupils in Wimbledon in south-west London. The school was founded as the junior department of King's College London and occupied part of its premises in Strand, before relocating to...

, and was called to the bar in 1863.

He was a Conservative

Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 (MP) for East Surrey

East Surrey (UK Parliament constituency)

East Surrey is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....

 from 1874 to 1885 and was elected as for Croydon

Croydon (UK Parliament constituency)

Croydon was a constituency in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1885 to 1918. It elected one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.- Boundaries :...

 in 1885, but resigned in 1886 on his appointment as a judge of the Queen's Bench Division. In parliament, he was a fairly frequent speaker who was seen as a militant opponent of Gladstone.

As a judge, he was seen as competent but with a weakness for commenting on cases in a way that brought him into conflict with various groups, a habit that eventually led to hints in the newspapers that he should retire. His tenure as a judge was mainly uncontroversial until 1906, when, in a series of decisions on election petitions following the general election of that year, in Bodmin

Bodmin (UK Parliament constituency)

Bodmin was the name of a parliamentary constituency in Cornwall from 1295 until 1983. Initially, it was a parliamentary borough, which returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of England and later the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom until the 1868 general...

, Maidstone

Maidstone (UK Parliament constituency)

Maidstone was a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.The parliamentary borough of Maidstone returned two Members of Parliament from 1552 until 1885, when its representation was reduced to one member...

 and Great Yarmouth

Great Yarmouth (UK Parliament constituency)

Great Yarmouth is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....

, he was seen as favouring the Conservatives. A censure motion was proposed in the House of Commons and led to a vigorous debate, but the government declined to take it further, possibly because of the precedent it would set. Five years later, an indiscreet speech to the grand jury in Liverpool led to the judge being rebuked by the Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith, in the House of Commons, 'one of the severest ever dealt to an English judge by a minister of the crown'. He died later that year, of pneumonia, in his house in Eaton Square, London.

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