George Augustus Chichester May, Chief Justice of Ireland

He joined the bar in 1844 after having graduated at Cambridge University. In 1863 he obtained silk, having then attained to distinction at the Chancery Bar.

In 1873 he was elected a Bencher of King’s Inn, Dublin, and in the year following, in Lord Beaconsfield’s Administration, was promoted to the. office of Law Adviser to the Crown. He became soon Solicitor-General and in 1875 Attorney­ General for Ireland.

He held this position for two years, and in 1877, on the death of the famous Chief Justice Whiteside (who had been counsel for the Liberator, Daniel O’Connell) became Lord Chief Justice of the Queen’s Bench, Ireland, Chief Justice May was to have presided at the State Trial of Parnell and the other Irish Members of Parliament, in 1880. He withdrew however from the Bench, on the first day of the trial. This step was taken in consequence of some remarks that had been previously made by him regarding the trials, and he considered that justice was best served by another judge presiding, lest he should have been accused of partiality to the crown, if a conviction took place.

The Chief Justice had a very distinguished school and college career. His name is on several honour boards at Shrewsbury School where he was educated. He was Bell University Scholar, and a fellow of Magdalen College, Cambridge, and took a double first at Cambridge. He died in 1892, aged 77, at Lis­navagh, Lord Rathdonnell’s seat in County Wicklow.

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.

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.

1877 Lord Chief Justice of Ireland

The Court of King's Bench (or Court of Queen's Bench during the reign of a Queen) was one of the senior courts of common law in Ireland. It was a mirror of the Court of King's Bench in England.

The Lord Chief Justice was the most senior judge in the court, and the second most senior Irish judge under English rule and later when Ireland became part of the United Kingdom.

Prior to the Supreme Court of Judicature Act (Ireland) 1877, the Lord Chief Justice presided over the Court of King's/Queen's Bench, and as such ranked foremost amongst the judges sitting at common law.

After 1877, the Lord Chief Justice assumed the presidency of the Queen's Bench Division of the new High Court of Justice, which sat permanently in the Four Courts in Dublin.