ANSON, William Reynell, Rr. Hon. SIR, 3d baronet: b. 1844; d. Oxford, 4 June 1914. A famous English jurist, educated at Eton and Oxford, where he won some of the highest academical distinctions. He practised at the bar till 1873; was appointed Vinerian reader in English law at Oxford (1874) ; where he took an active part in promoting the foundation of a school of law. In 1880 he made a bid for parliamentary honors as •a Liberal, unsuccessfully. Elected warden of AU Souls' College in 1881; became a member of the Hebdomadal Council in 1884 and vice chancellor in 1898. In 1899 he was elected M.P. foi Oxford University, but as a Unionist. In 1902 he was made parliamentary secretary of the Board of Education and, as the repre sentative of the Education Department in the Haase of Commons, he had much to do svifh defending and bringing- into operation the Edu cation Act of 1903. He established an endur
ing reputation by his great work, The Law and Custom of the Constitution) (1881), a monument of learning and lucid exposition and the most trustworthy guide to the complex machinery of Bkitish Overtimes:a: It is the textbook from 'which British Statesmen have to learn their business. His other chief work, (The Principles of the Law of Contra& (1879), has also become a standard classic. Sir William Anson wins a trustee of the Brit ish Museum — an honor more difficult of at tainment than a mere peerage. 'The future King of England received his instruction in constitutional history from him. As Anson died unmarried, the baronetcy passed to his nephew, Sir Denis Anson, a very young man who was drowned in the Thames a month later.