JUDICIAL CHANGES

His Majesty has been pleased to approve the following appointments to take effect on the 10th inst., namely:---

The Hon. Mr. Justice Bigham to be President of the Probate, Divorce, and Admiralty Division of the High Court of Justice.

The new President of the Divorce Court was born in 1840 in Liverpool, the second son of Mr. John Bigham. a merchant. It was originally intended that he should have a mercantile career, and he was educated at the Liverpool Institute and Berlin. In 1870. however, he was called to the Bar at the Middle Temple and became a pupil of the late Lord Chief Justice Russell, and afterwards of the late Mr. R. G. Williams, his fellow-pupils including Lord Collins, Sir Gainsford Bruce, Lord Justice Kennedy, and Mr. Justice Ridley. He joined the Northern Circuit and rapidly got a large junior practice, took silk in 1883, and in a few years became leader of the circuit. In 1885 he was made a Bencher of his Inn. For two years before he became a Judge in 1897 in the place of the late Mr. Justice Cave he had represented as a Unionist the Exchange Division of Liverpool, during which time he was a member of the South Africa Committee in the House of Commons. He was a member of the Royal Commission on Martial Law in South Africa in 1902, and has been President of the Railway and Canal Commission and Judge in Bankruptcy. Sir J. C. Bigham married in 1871 Georgina, daughter of Mr. John Rogers, of Liverpool.