Murray Coutts-Trotter Explained

Sir Murray Coutts-Trotter
Order1:Chief Justice of the Madras High Court
Term Start1:1924
Term End1:1929
Predecessor1:Sir Walter George Salis Schwabe
Successor1:Sir Horace Owen Compton Beasley
Birth Name:Victor Murray Coutts-Trotter
Birth Date:12 May 1874
Birth Place:Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, England
Death Date:12 May 1929 (aged 55)
Death Place:at sea
Occupation:lawyer, judge
Profession:Chief Justice

Sir Victor Murray Coutts-Trotter (12 May 1874 – 12 May 1929) was a British barrister who was Chief Justice of the Madras High Court from 1924 to 1929.[1] [2]

Biography

Son of Alexander Trotter, of Newcastle and London,[3] [4] Trotter was educated at St. Paul's School, London and Balliol College, Oxford, and called to the Bar from the Inner Temple. In 1901 he stood 1st class in classical Moderations and in the Final School of Humanities. Trotter won Hertford and Eldon Law Scholarships. He became Assistant Professor of Greek at the University of Liverpool in 1898. Trotter also served as Vinerian Professor of Law and Lecturer in Criminal Law and Evidence in Oxford. He worked under Justice Sir Walter George Salis Schwabe as a junior Barrister in the Madras Presidency. In January 1915 he became a puisne judge of the Madras High Court[5] and was appointed Chief Justice on 3 June 1924. He was subsequently knighted[6] and resigned in 1929[7] due to ill-health; he died at sea on the journey back to England on his 55th birthday.[2] [8] He had married in 1905, Dorothy Evelyn Mary, daughter of Admiralty clerk George W. Godfrey[9] [10] (author of a one-act comic play, "My Milliner's Bill").[11] They had two sons and two daughters.[4]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: The former Chief Justices. hcmadras.tn.nic.in. June 28, 2018.
  2. News: Obituary: Sir Victor Coutts Trotter – Chief Justice of Madras . . 14 May 1929 . 18 .
  3. The Balliol College Register, Oxford University Press, 1934, p. 212
  4. Who was who in British India, John F. Riddick, Greenwood Press, 1998, p. 367
  5. Trotter, Hon’ble Justice Victor Murray Coutts . 21.6 . 440 . 1915. 1.
  6. Web site: The London Gazette. May 30, 1924. June 28, 2018.
  7. Book: Volume 1, S. Muthiah. Madras, Chennai: A 400-year Record of the First City of Modern India. 2008. Palaniappa Brothers . 9788183794688. June 28, 2018.
  8. News: Madras miscellany. The Hindu. 5 February 2012 . June 28, 2018.
  9. Debrett's Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage, 1931, p. 1334
  10. Kent & Sussex Courier, 11 Aug. 1905, British Newspaper Archive, Family Notices, digital folder number 102117802
  11. Catalogue of Copyright Entries, Part 1, Group 3- Dramatic Compositions and Motion Pictures, vol. 2, no. 1, Library of Congress Copyright Office, 1929, p. 435