Ralph Neville (MP)

Ralph Neville, K.C. (13 September 1848 – 13 October 1918) was an English barrister, politician and judge of the Chancery Court.

Neville was the son of Mr. Henry Neville, a surgeon, of Esher. He was born on 13 September 1848 and was educated at Tonbridge School and at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he graduated BA in 1871. At the university he was known as a good oarsman. He rowed in the Emmanuel May boat in 1868, when it was fourth on the river. He stroked the college boat in the C.U.B.C. fours, and it was beaten only in the final heat. In the same year he got his trial cap. though he did not succeed in getting into the University boat. Upon his call to the Bar by Lincoln's Inn in 1872 he obtained but little work in London, and, after a few years' waiting, he went to Liverpool as a "local," it is said upon the advice of Sir Henry Jackson, whose pupil he had been. There he practised in the Chancery Court of the County Palatine of Lancaster and in the Court of Passage. As a junior both in these Courts and on the Northern Circuit he acquired a large practice. Eventually he returned to London, and took silk in 1888. At this time, Sir Marshall Warmington was at the height of his renown, and Neville, who had the most versatile intellect, was looked upon as an easy second to him in the Court of Mr. Justice Kekewich. Soon, Warmington "went special" and Neville obtained the leading practice before that Judge, and afterwards before Mr. Justice Romer.

In the meantime, he had given attention to politics. As a Gladstonian Liberal he contested the Exchange Division of Liverpool in a by-election against George Goschen, afterwards Lord Goschen, and was returned by seven votes. Fiver later he retained the seat with an increased majority against John Bigham who stood as a Liberal Unionist. Neville's services to his party were thus considerable, and it was natural that he should be chosen, not only because of them, but because of his eminence at the Bar, to succeed Mr. Justice Farwell on his promotion to the Court of Appeal in 1906.

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