Richard Wild
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Sir (Herbert) Richard Churton Wild, GBE, KCMG, QC, PC, (20 September 1912 - 22 May 1978) was Chief Justice of New Zealand. Wild was born in Blenheim but attended Feilding Agricultural High School. In 1930 he enrolled at Victoria University College, graduating LLB in 1934 and LLM in 1935. In 1938 he played representative rugby for Wellington.
[edit] Army career
In 1955 Wild was appointed judge advocate general of the army. Two years later he was appointed Solicitor-General, becoming a Queen's Counsel the same year. During his eight-year term he revitalised the Crown Law Office, recruiting able members of the profession as Crown counsel and reorganising the department to meet the demands of the increasing litigation involving the government and the administration of criminal justice. As the Crown’s principal legal adviser and counsel, he appeared in many leading cases, mainly in the Court of Appeal and before the Privy Council. He was president of the Wellington District Law Society (1960), and from 1962 to 1964 vice president of the New Zealand Law Society. His leadership and chairmanship were acknowledged as outstanding. In 1962–63 he was chairman of the Committee on Absolute Liability, the precursor to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Compensation for Personal Injury in New Zealand, which led to new accident compensation legislation. In 1964 he contributed a paper on ‘Social progress and the legal process’ for the New Zealand Institute of Public Administration.
[edit] Chief Justice
On 18 January 1966 Wild was appointed Chief Justice of New Zealand, the youngest to assume the office since the appointment of James Prendergast in 1875. Wild became a member of the Privy Council and was knighted (KCMG). His passionate belief in the fundamental importance of the administration of justice in an ordered, democratic society shone through all his work as a judge and head of a judiciary committed to administering justice efficiently, effectively and promptly. He famously decided the case of Fitzgerald v Muldoon in 1976.
During his term as Chief Justice, there were major changes in the judicial system and the jurisdiction following the Royal Commission on the Courts, and the Royal Commission on Personal Injury. Along with dealing with these administrative issues, Wild sat on the bench of the (old) Supreme Court sessions throughout New Zealand, the Court of Appeal of New Zealand, and also as a member of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London in 1969, 1972 and 1977.
Wild was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 1977. On 22 May 1978 he died in Karori, Wellington, survived by his wife, two sons and two daughters. One of Sir Richard's sons, John, has since been appointed a Justice of the High Court of New Zealand.
[edit] External links
| Chief Justice of New Zealand |  |
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| William Martin | George Arney | James Prendergast | Robert Stout | Charles Skerrett | Michael Myers | Humphrey Francis O'Leary | Harold Barrowclough | Richard Wild | Ronald Davison | Thomas Eichelbaum | Sian Elias | ||||
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Wild, Richard |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Sir Richard |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Jurist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1919 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Blenheim, New Zealand |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1978 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Wellington, New Zealand |
