George Augustus Chichester May PC, QC (1815 – 16 August 1892) was an Irish judge.
May was born in Belfast, the son of the Reverend Edward May and Elizabeth Sinclair. He was educated at Shrewsbury School and Magdalene College, Cambridge , where he graduated B.A. as 36th Wrangler and 3rd Classic in 1836, and became a fellow of Magdalene.[1] Called to the Irish Bar in 1844, he became Queen's Counsel in 1865 and was appointed Attorney-General for Ireland in 1875. In 1877 he became Lord Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench for Ireland and on the passing of the Judicature Act became Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench Division of the Irish High Court. He retired in 1887 and died in 1892. He married Olivia Barrington in 1853 : they had ten chidren of whom the most notable was Sir Francis Henry May, Governor of Hong Kong.
According to F. Elrington Ball's definitive work on the pre-1921 Irish judiciary, though May was a considerable scholar he was not well regarded as a barrister and his appointment was greeted with some protest.[2]
| Legal offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Henry Ormsby |
Attorney-General for Ireland 1875–1877 |
Succeeded by Edward Gibson |
| Preceded by James Whiteside |
Lord Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench for Ireland 1877–1887 |
Succeeded by Sir Michael Morris, Bt |