BRAMWELL, GEORGE WILLIAM WILSHERE BRAMWELL, BARON (1808-1892), English judge, was born in London on June 12, 1808, being the eldest son of a banker. He was educated privately, and after two years in a bank, was admitted as a student at Lincoln's Inn in 1830, and at the Inner Temple in 1836. At first he practised as a special pleader, but was called to the bar at both Inns in 1838. In 1850 he was appointed a member of the Common Law Procedure Commission, which resulted in the Common Law Procedure Act of 1852. This act he drafted jointly with Mr. (afterwards Mr. Justice) Willes, and thus began the abolition of the system of special pleading. In 1851 Lord Cranworth made Bramwell a queen's counsel, and the Inner Temple elected him a bencher. In 1853 he served on the royal com mission to enquire into the assimilation of the mercantile laws of Scotland and England and the law of partnership, which had as its result the Companies Act of 1862. It was he who, during the sitting of this commission, suggested the addition of the word "limited" to the title of companies that sought to limit their liability, in order to prevent the danger to persons trading with them in ignorance of that limitation. As a queen's counsel Bram well enjoyed a large practice, and in 1856 he was raised to the bench as a baron of the exchequer. In 1867, with Mr. Justice Blackburn and Sir John Coleridge, he was made a member of the judicature commission. In 1871 he refused a seat on the judicial committee of the privy council. In 1876 he was raised to the court of appeal, where he sat till the autumn of 1881. His de cisions were always clear ; he had a straightforward manner and a gift of trenchant speech. Among his important judgements are Ryder v. Wombwell (L. R. 3 Ex. 95) ; R. v. Bradshaw (14 Cox C. C. 84) ; Household Fire Insurance Company v. Grant (4 Ex. Div. 216) ; Stonor v. Fowle (13 App. Cas. 20) ; The Bank of England v. Vagliano Brothers (App. Cas. 1891). Upon his retirement in 1881, 26 judges and a huge gathering of the bar entertained him at a banquet in the Inner Temple hall. In December of the same year he was raised to the peerage. Politically he was a strong individualist and opposed to what he called "grandmotherly legis lation," and sat in appeals to the House of Lords. Bramwell died on May 9, 1892.
His younger brother, Sir Frederick Bramwell (1818-1903), was a well-known consulting engineer and "expert witness."