Sir Joseph Arnould (12 November 1813 – 16 February 1886) was a writer and British judge in India.
Born at Camberwell, he was the only son of Dr. Joseph Arnould and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Baily.[1] He was the great uncle of the actor, Laurence Olivier. He was educated at Charterhouse School and then Wadham College, Oxford, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1836. Five years later, Arnould was called to the bar by the Middle Temple.[2] For some time he wrote articles for the Daily News (UK) and in 1848 he published his first book.[1] Arnould was appointed puisne judge at the Supreme Court of Judicature at Bombay in 1859, whereas he was created a Knight Bachelor.[2] In 1862, as the Bombay High Court was inaugurated, he became one of its first judges.[3] Arnould presided in the 1862 Maharaj Libel Case[4] and the 1866 Aga Khan case[5] and retired three years later in 1869.[1]
A close friend of the poet Robert Browning, he won himself the Newdigate Prize, awarded by the University of Oxford in 1834.[6] During his time with the Middle Temple, Arnould befriended also and shared rooms with Alfred Domett.[7] In January 1841, he married Maria, daughter of H. G. Ridgway. She died in 1859 and Arnould married a second time in the following year.[1] Arnould lived at White Cross House in Winterbrook, near Wallingford in Berkshire (now Oxfordshire). During his retirement, he moved to Italy and died at Florence on 16 November 1886.[8]
The Arnould Scholarship at the University of Bombay was named in his honour.[8]
He was married twice: first, in 1841, to Maria, eldest daughter of H. G. Ridgeway; and, secondly, in 1860, to Ann Pitcairn, daughter of Major Carnegie, C.B.