Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Garth, Richard
GARTH, Sir RICHARD (1820–1903), chief justice of Bengal, born at Morden, Surrey, on 11 March 1820, was eldest son of the six children of Richard Lowndes (afterwards Garth), rector of Farnham, Surrey, by his wife Mary, daughter of Robert Douglas, rector of Salwarpe, Worcestershire. His father was the second son of Wilham Lowndes of Baldwin Brightwell, Oxfordshire, by his wife Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Richard Garth of Morden, and assumed the name and arms of Garth on succeeding to his mother's property in 1837. In due course Richard became lord of the manor of Morden.
He was educated at Eton, where he played in the cricket elevens of 1837-8, and at Chist Church, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in 1842 and M.A. in 1845. He was a member of the university cricket eleven from 1839 to 1842, and its captain in 1840 and 1841. Admitted a student of Lincoln's Inn on 9 July 1842, he was called to the bar there on 19 Nov. 1847. Joining the home circuit, he gained great popularity in the profession, and especial repute in commercial cases heard at the Guildhall. For many years he was counsel to the Incorporated Law Society. He took silk on 24 July 1866, and was two days later elected a bencher of his inn. In the 1866-8 parliament he represented Guildford in the conservative interest, but was defeated at the next general election. In 1875 he was appointed chief justice of Bengal and was knighted (13 May). A bluff, genial, fresh-complexioned man, he looked more like a country squire or a naval officer than a judge. Popular with all classes of society in Calcutta, he did much to bring the European and Indian communities into closer social touch. His judicial decisions were marked by learning, patience, and practical good sense, and were rarely reversed by the judicial committee of the privy council.
Garth came into frequent conflict with the Bengal government. The views of the high court were then systematically sought on legislative proposals, and Garth framed confidential minutes. But at the same time he often gave subsequent public utterance to pronounced opinions about the proposed legislation. The most notable example of such practice was his vigorous propaganda against the Bengal tenancy bill, designed to give the cultivators in the permanently settled areas clearly defined and transferable occupancy rights, and passed into law after much controversy in 1885. In a published 'Minute' (Calcutta, 1882, 18 pp. folio) he declared the measure to be ruinous for the zamindars and to embody a policy of confiscation. His sincerity was unquestioned, but it was improper for the chief justice to engage in partisan controversy over legislation which he would probably have to interpret judicially. He showed sympathy with Indian aspirations. He promoted the Legal Practitioners Act of 1879, and he insisted that one of the three additional judges appointed to the Bengal high court in 1885 should be an Indian.
Ill-health led to his retirement in March 1886, shortly before he had qualified for full pension. He was named of the privy council in February 1888, but was not appointed to the judicial committee. A strong supporter of the Indian National Congress, he wrote ‘A Few Plain Truths about India’ (1888), largely in advocacy of its views. His vigorous reply (1895) to some criticisms of the movement by General Sir George T. Chesney [q. v. Suppl. I] has been constantly quoted by the congress authorities (see Ind. Nat. Congress, Madras, 1909, pt. ii. p. 24). Garth promoted in July 1899 a memorial to the India office from retired high court judges for the separation of executive and judicial functions in the administrative organisation of districts.
He died at his house in Cheniston Gardens, London, on 23 March 1903, and was buried at Morden. He married on 27 June 1847 Clara (d. 15 Jan. 1903), second daughter of William Loftus Lowndes, Q.C., by whom he had six sons and three daughters. A portrait of Garth by the Hon. John Collier is in the Calcutta high court.
[Foster's Men at the Bar, 1885; India List, 1903; Englishman Weekly Summary, 23 and 30 March 1886; Friend of India and Statesman Weekly, 26 March 1903; India, 27 March and 3 April 1903; Wisden's Cricketers' Almanack for 1904, lxxx.; information kindly supplied by Lt.-col. Richard Garth, the eldest son; personal knowledge.]