Thomas Wilde, 1st Baron Truro

Thomas Wilde, 1st Baron Truro (7 July 1782 – 1855), Lord Chancellor of Great Britain, was the second son of Thomas Wilde, an attorney. He was born in London and educated at St Paul's School and was admitted an attorney in 1805. He subsequently entered the Inner Temple and was called to the bar in 1817, having practised for two years before as a special pleader. Retained for the defence of Queen Caroline in 1820 he distinguished himself by his cross-examination and laid the foundation of an extensive common law practice. He first entered parliament in the Whig interest as member for Newark (1831-1832 and 1835-1841), afterwards representing Worcester (1841-1846). He was appointed Solicitor General in 1839, and became Attorney-General in succession to Sir John Campbell in 1841. His first wife having died in 1840, on the 13 August 1845 he was married to Augusta Emma d'Este, daughter of Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex and a first cousin of Queen Victoria. In 1846 he was appointed Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, an office he held until 1850, when he became Lord Chancellor, and was created Baron Truro, of Bowes in the County of Middlesex. He held this latter office until the fall of the Russell ministry in 1852. He died in London in November 1855.

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.