>Citation bot at 22:59, 14 February 2021

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{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2018}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2018}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Courtenay Ilbert
| image = Courtenay Ilbert.jpg
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1841|06|12|df=yes}}
| birth_place = [[Kingsbridge]], [[England]], [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland]]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1924|05|14|1841|06|12|df=yes}}
| death_place = [[Penn, Buckinghamshire]], [[England]], [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland]]
| nationality = British
| other_names =
| alma_mater = [[Balliol College, Oxford]]
| occupation = [[Lawyer]], [[Civil servant]]
| known_for = ''[[Ilbert Bill]]<br />[[Legislative Methods and Forms]]''
| relatives = [[Lettice Fisher]] (daughter)
[[Mary Bennett]] (grand-daughter)
| office = Clerk of the House of Commons
| order = [[File:Crowned Portcullis.svg|25px]]<br>33rd
| predecessor = [[Archibald Milman]]
| successor = [[Thomas Lonsdale Webster]]
| honorific_prefix = [[Sir]]
| honorific_suffix = [[Order of the Bath|GCB]] [[Order of the Star of India|KCSI]] [[Order of the Indian Empire|CIE]] [[Fellow of the British Academy|FBA]]
| termstart = 1902
| termend = 1921
| office2 = [[Office of the Parliamentary Counsel (United Kingdom)|First Parliamentary Counsel]]
| predecessor2 = [[Henry Thring, 1st Baron Thring]]
| successor2 = [[Henry Jenkyns]]
| termstart2 = 1899
| termend2 = 1902
}}
'''Sir Courtenay Peregrine Ilbert''' {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|GCB|KCSI|CIE|FBA}} (12 June 1841 – 14 May 1924) was a distinguished British lawyer and civil servant who served as legal adviser to the [[Governor-General of India|Viceroy of India's]] [[Governor-General of India#Council|Council]] for many years until his eventual return from India to England. His later career included appointments as the [[Office of the Parliamentary Counsel (United Kingdom)|First Parliamentary Counsel]] (1899–1902) and as [[Clerk of the House of Commons]] from 1902 to 1921.

==Early life==

Ilbert was born at Kingsbridge to Reverend Peregrine Arthur Ilbert and Rose Anne (daughter of George Welsh Owen) on 12 June 1841. He was educated at [[Marlborough College]] (1852–60) and at [[Balliol College, Oxford]], where he was Hertford, Ireland, Craven, and Eldon law scholar. He graduated with first class honours in [[Literae Humaniores]] and was elected a fellow of Balliol in 1864.<ref name=odnb>{{Cite ODNB|first=R.C.J.|last=Cocks|title=Ilbert, Sir Courtenay Peregrine|id=34090|year=2004}}</ref>

==Personal life==

Ilbert married Jessie, daughter of Reverend Charles Bradley and niece of George Bradley, former headmaster of Marlborough College in 1874. They had five daughters, the oldest, [[Lettice Fisher]] became the first to head the National Council for the Unmarried Mother and her Child.<ref name=odnb /> His fourth daughter Margaret Peregrina Ilbert (1882–1952) married Sir [[Arthur Cochrane (officer of arms)|Arthur Cochrane]] of the [[College of Arms]].

Ilbert was an outdoorsman in his youth and he climbed in Chamonix (1871 with Leslie Stephen and M. Loppe)<ref>{{cite book| title=The life and letters of Leslie Stephen| author=Maitland, Frederic William|url= https://archive.org/stream/lifelettersofles00maituoft#page/94/mode/2up/| page=94| publisher=Duckworth & Co.| place= London| year=1906}}</ref> the Hekla in Iceland and the Vignemale in the Pyrenees in 1872–73 with [[James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce|James Bryce]].<ref>{{cite book |title= Dictionary of National Biography (1922-1930)|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1937 |pages=127–135| author=Carlyle, E.I.|chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/dictionaryofnati04leesuoft#page/128/mode/2up| chapter= Bryce, James}}</ref> When Ilbert lived in Simla, at Chapslee house, he founded a Simla Natural History Society around 1885 but the organization dissolved when he left Simla in 1886.<ref>{{cite book| title= Past and Present| author=Buck, Edward J. |year=1904| publisher= Thacker, Spink and Co.|place= Calcutta|pages=33, 195|url=https://archive.org/stream/simlapastpresent00buckrich#page/194/mode/2up}}</ref>

Ilbert died a few months after the death of his wife at his home in Troutwells, [[Buckinghamshire]] on 14 May 1924.<ref name=odnb />

==Legal career==

Ilbert was called to bar ([[Lincoln's Inn]]) in 1869. He joined the [[Office of the Parliamentary Counsel (United Kingdom)|Office of the Parliamentary Counsel]], the department for drafting parliamentary bills. His expertise in drafting bills attracted the attention of [[Henry Thring, 1st Baron Thring|Sir Henry Thring]] who invited him to help prepare bills. The [[George Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon|Marquess of Ripon]] sought a liberal and an imaginative lawyer who could succeed the likes of [[Thomas Babington Macaulay|Lord Macaulay]], [[Henry James Sumner Maine|Sir Henry Maine]], and [[James Fitzjames Stephen|Sir James Fitzjames Stephen]]. Ilbert was identified in this role and made a legal member of the Council of Governor-General of India from 1882–6. During this period he introduced a draft which came to be called the [[Ilbert Bill]] in 1883 for [[British India]] that proposed an amendment for existing laws in the country at the time to allow Indian judges and magistrates the jurisdiction to try British offenders in criminal cases at the District level, something that was disallowed at the time. This faced much opposition from Europeans in India as well as influential figures in England like Sir Fitzjames Stephen. The extent of Ilbert's personal beliefs in preparing this document are unknown but this draft led to a major discussions on the purpose of colonialism, the welfare of subjects, and racial equality resulting in the draft bill being modified greatly.<ref name=odnb />

He was appointed assistant parliamentary counsel to Treasury in 1886 and [[Office of the Parliamentary Counsel (United Kingdom)|First Parliamentary Counsel]] in 1899. In February 1902, Ilbert was appointed [[Clerk of the House of Commons]],<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=27408|page=1037|date=18 February 1902}}</ref> and he served as such until 1921.<ref name=odnb />

==Honours==

Ilbert was invested as a [[Order of the Star of India|Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India]] in 1895, as a [[Order of the Bath|Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath]] in 1908, and as a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in 1911. He was a founding [[Fellow of the British Academy]] (1903).<ref name=odnb />

==Published works==
Ilbert reflected on laws and law-making and wrote several books on parliamentary and legislative procedure and history that were highly regarded. Jurists like Sir Carleton Kemp Allen praised his knowledge of parliamentary procedure but felt he was outdated. He pointed out to how government initiatives were modified into legally actionable forms but many{{weasel inline|date=October 2019}}considered Ilbert to be outdated and old-fashioned in putting faith in public opinion to exert corrective action on legislative abuses.<ref name=odnb />

* {{Cite book|last=Ilbert|first=Courtenay|title=[[Legislative Methods and Forms]]|publisher=Henry Frowde|year=1901|isbn=|location=Oxford|pages=}}
*{{Cite book|last=Ilbert|first=Courtenay|url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924006773653|title=Montesquieu|publisher=Clarendon Press|year=1904|isbn=|location=Oxford|pages=}} The 1904 [[Romanes Lecture]].
*{{Cite book|last=Ilbert|first=Courtenay|url=https://archive.org/details/parliamentitshis00ilbe|title=Parliament: Its History, Constitution and Practice|publisher=Williams and Norgate|year=1911|isbn=|edition=1|location=London|pages=}} 2nd ed, 1920. 3rd ed, Oxford, 1948.
*{{Cite book|last=Ilbert|first=Courtenay|url=https://archive.org/details/methodsoflegisla00ilberich|title=Methods of Legislation|publisher=University of London Press|year=1912|isbn=|edition=1|location=|pages=}}
*{{Cite book|last=Ilbert|first=Courtenay|url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924021826841|title=The Mechanics of Law Making|publisher=[[Columbia University Press]]|year=1914|isbn=|location=New York|pages=}}
*{{Cite book|last=Ilbert|first=Courtenay|url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924022922482|title=The Government of India|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1922|isbn=|pages=}}
*{{Cite book|last1=Ilbert|first1=Courtenay|url=https://archive.org/details/newconstitutiono031285mbp|title=The New Constitution of India|last2=Meston|first2=James|publisher=University of London Press|year=1923|isbn=|location=|pages=|author-link2=James Meston, 1st Baron Meston}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{wikisource author}}
*{{NPG name}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Courtenay Ilbert |sopt=t}}
*[http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/columns/tca-srinivasa-raghavan/article2110050.ece To the Manor Reborn - Article in the Hindu Businessline, India (17 Jun 2011)]
*[https://archives.parliament.uk/collections/getrecord/GB61_ILB Parliamentary Archives, Papers of Sir Courtenay Ilbert]

{{s-start}}
{{s-legal}}
{{s-bef | before = [[Henry Jenkyns]] }}
{{s-ttl | title = [[First Parliamentary Counsel (United Kingdom)|First Parliamentary Counsel]]
| years = 1899–1901}}
{{s-aft | after = Sir [[Mackenzie Dalzell Chalmers]] }}
{{end}}

{{University of Calcutta Vice chancellors}}
{{FBA 1902}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ilbert, Courtenay}}
[[Category:1841 births]]
[[Category:1924 deaths]]
[[Category:Indian Civil Service (British India) officers]]
[[Category:First Parliamentary Counsel]]
[[Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Star of India]]
[[Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath]]
[[Category:Vice Chancellors of the University of Calcutta]]
[[Category:Clerks of the House of Commons]]
[[Category:Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Fellows of the British Academy]]
[[Category:Presidents of the Oxford Union]]

Courtenay Ilbert - Revision history

>Citation bot at 22:59, 14 February 2021