Wilfrid Bourne

Sir John Wilfrid Bourne KCB QC (27 January 1922 – 19 October 1999), known as Sir Wilfrid Bourne, was a British lawyer and civil servant who held the position of Permanent Secretary to the Lord Chancellor's Office from 1977 to 1982.

Family and education Bourne was the second son of Robert Croft Bourne, MP for Oxford from 1924 to 1938, and Lady Hester Margaret Cairns, daughter of Wilfred Cairns, 4th Earl Cairns. Bourne's great-grandfather, the Conservative politician Hugh Cairns, had served as Lord Chancellor under Benjamin Disraeli. He entered the Middle Temple and was called to the bar in 1948. He joined the chambers of Melford Stevenson (later a High Court judge) and served on the Oxford circuit. and a Knight Commander (KCB) in 1979. He became a Queen's Counsel (QC) in 1981.