Richard Collins, Baron Collins

British judge (1842–1911)

The Right HonourableThe Lord CollinsPC
Francis Derwent Wood's Lord Henn-Collins

Lord of Appeal in Ordinary
In office 1907–1910
Master of the Rolls
In office 1901–1907
Preceded by	Sir Archibald Levin Smith
Succeeded by	The Lord Cozens-Hardy
Lord Justice of Appeal
Justice of the High Court

"Lord Collins" redirects here. For other uses, see Lord Collins (disambiguation).

Richard Henn Collins, Baron Collins PC (31 January 1842 – 3 January 1911) was an Anglo-Irish lawyer and judge.

Life

In 1867, he was called to the English bar and joined the northern circuit. He was made a Queen's Counsel in 1883 and a judge in 1891.

Having made a Lord Justice of Appeal in 1897, he was appointed also to the Privy Council. In October 1901, Collins became Master of the Rolls after the death of Sir Archibald Smith, and the following month was appointed to the accompanying post of Chairman of the Historical Manuscripts Commission. He received the honorary degree LL.D. from the University of Cambridge in May 1902. On 6 March 1907 he was appointed a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, receiving additionally a life peerage with the title Baron Collins, of Kensington in the County of London. He resigned as Lord of Appeal on 9 January 1910.

Lord Collins was judge of the trial of Oscar Wilde's libel prosecution against the Marquess of Queensberry on 3 April 1895 (as noted in "The Trials of Oscar Wilde", by H. Montgomery Hyde (1962) at p97). He represented Great Britain on the Venezuela Boundary Commission, established to adjudicate in the boundary dispute between British Guiana and Venezuela in 1899. In 1904, he was chairman of the commission which investigated the case of Adolf Beck.

He died at Hove, East Sussex on 3 January 1911.

His wife, Jane Ogle, Lady Collins (d. 1934), is buried in Brompton Cemetery. His younger son, Sir Stephen Henn-Collins, became a High Court judge.

^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1922). "Collins of Kensington, Richard Henn Collins, Baron" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 30 (12th ed.). London & New York: The Encyclopædia Britannica Company. p. 722.
"Collins, Richard Henn (CLNS863RH)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
"No. 27367". The London Gazette. 22 October 1901. p. 6847.
"No. 27378". The London Gazette. 19 November 1901. p. 7471.
"University intelligence". The Times. No. 36779. London. 28 May 1902. p. 12.
"No. 28002". The London Gazette. 8 March 1907. p. 1738.

Legal offices
Preceded bySir Archibald Smith	Master of the Rolls 1901–1907	Succeeded bySir Herbert Cozens-Hardy

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