FRY, SIR EDWARD English judge, second son of Joseph Fry (1795-1879), was born at Bristol on Nov. 4, 1827, and educated at University college, London. He was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1854 and was made a Q.C. in 1869, practising in the rolls court and becoming recognized as a leading equity lawyer. In 1877 he was raised to the bench and knighted. As chancery judge he will be remembered for his careful inter pretations and elucidations of the Judicature Acts, then first coming into operation. In 1883 he was made a lord justice of appeal, but resigned in 1892; his knowledge of equity and talents for arbitration were utilized by the British Government from time to time in various special directions, particularly as chair man of many commissions. He retired from the bench in 1892 after 15 years of service. J. E. G. de Montmorency (Dict. Nat. Biog.) writes : "Probably, when the history of English law for the period falls into perspective, it will be found that Fry did more than any other lawyer, with perhaps the exception of Lord Cairns, to secure perfect continuity in the adaptation, under purified conditions of civil procedure, of the rules of law to modern social conditions." His retirement was only a prelude to a period of hard work as an arbitrator in many domestic questions and as an international lawyer. In Nov. 190o he was made a judge on The Hague tri bunal, and sat in the first case called before the court, the "pious foundations" case between the United States and Mexico. He was British assessor on the North Sea Inquiry Commission (Dogger Bank incident) in 1904; first British plenipotentiary and doyen of the conference at the second Hague Conference of 1907; and an arbitrator in the Casablanca incident between France and Ger many (1908). Fry was G.C.B. (1907) and F.R.S. (1883). He died at Failand on Oct. 18, 1918.
See Agnes Fry, Memoir of Sir Edward Fry (1921), which includes an autobiography and a bibliography of his numerous works.