Thomas Townsend Bucknill

Mr Justice Bucknill sentencing Frederick Seddon to death in 1912. This is the only known photograph of the death sentence being pronounced in England.

Sir Thomas Townsend Bucknill (18 April 1845 – 4 October 1915) was an English judge of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, a Member of Parliament and a Privy Councillor.

Biography 'Tommy' Bucknill was born at Exminster in 1845, the second son of Sir John Charles Bucknill, He sat as the Conservative Member of Parliament

Among the notable cases tried before Bucknill was that in 1912 of poisoner Frederick Seddon, who, on being found guilty of murder appealed directly to Bucknill as a brother Mason and in the name of 'The Great Architect Of The Universe' to overturn the jury's verdict. According to some sources he gave the First Degree sign, according to others the Sign of Grief and Distress, begging for mercy.

He was the father of Sir Alfred Townsend Bucknill (1880–1963), also a High Court Judge and who became a Privy Councillor in 1945 and John Alexander Strachey Bucknill who served as Chief Justice of the Straits Settlements and Puisne Judge in Patna, India.

Arms

Portrayals In the 1981 Granada Television series Lady Killers Christopher Banks played Bucknill in an episode entitled Root of All Evil.