William Pickford, 1st Baron Sterndale PC (1 October 1848–7 August 1923) was a British lawyer and judge. He served as a Lord Justice of Appeal between 1914 and 1918, as President of the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division between 1918 and 1919 and as Master of the Rolls between 1919 and 1923.
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Pickford was educated at Liverpool College and Exeter College, Oxford.
Pickford was appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal and sworn of the Privy Council in 1914.[1] In 1916 he was chairman of the Dardanelles Commission[2]. He was made President of the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division and raised to the peerage as Baron Sterndale, of King Sterndale in the County of Derby, in 1918.[3] The following year he became Master of the Rolls, a post he held until 1923.
Lord Sterndale married Alice Mary Brooke, of Sibton Park Suffolk, on 18 August 1880. They had two daughters, Dorothy Frances Pickford (b. 1881) and Mary (Molly) Ada Pickford (b. 1884). His wife Alice died after childbirth on 5 September 1884. Sterndale's daughter the Hon. Mary Ada Pickford sat as Conservative Member of Parliament for Hammersmith North from 1931 to 1934. Lord Sterndale died in August 1923, aged 74, when the barony became extinct. He is buried at King Sterndale Church near Buxton, Derbyshire.
| Legal offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Sir Samuel Evans |
President of the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division 1918–1919 |
Succeeded by Sir Henry Duke |
| Preceded by Sir Charles Swinfen Eady |
Master of the Rolls 1919–1923 |
Succeeded by Sir Ernest Pollock |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| New creation | Baron Sterndale 1918 – 1923 |
Extinct |