Reginald Appleby

Reginald Woodifield Appleby CBE VD (1865 – 30 August 1948) was an English lawyer, practising in Bermuda, who in 1898 founded the predecessor of the law firm that now trades as Appleby. He served as a major in the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps during the First World War and was a member of the Legislative Council of Bermuda.

Reginald Appleby

CBE VD
Reginald Appleby
Born1865
Portsea Island, Hampshire, England
DiedAugust 30, 1948(1948-08-30) (aged 82–83)
Doctor's Hospital, New York
AllegianceEnglish
Army
RankMajor
UnitBermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps
Battles/warsFirst World War
AwardsCommander of the Order of the British Empire
Spouse(s)Edith Mary Gosling
ChildrenPrudence Tucker
RelationsGeorge Walton Appleby and Agnes Sterry Tucker
Other workLawyer

Early life and family

Reginald Appleby was born at Portsea Island, Hampshire, England, in 1865[1] to George Walton Appleby of Durham and Agnes Sterry Tucker of Tankfield, Paget East, Bermuda. His parents had married at St. Paul's Church (Church of England), Paget, on 8 September, 1859. His father, at the time, resided in Pembroke, Bermuda and was an officer in the 26th (Cameronian) Regiment of Foot, into which he had been commissioned as an Ensign with seniority from 18 August, 1854, and promoted to Lieutenant with seniority from 30 March, 1855. His regiment served as part of the Bermuda Garrison from 1854 'til October, 1859 (with the Regimental Depot at Belfast, Ireland), after which it sailed to Portsmouth, before being posted to Dublin, Ireland. His father was described in the 1871 census as widowed and "Late Captain Landowner"[2] and in 1881 as "Late Cpt 31st Regmt".[3] Reginald had three brothers and a sister.[2] His mother was born in Pembroke, Bermuda, on the 5 May, 1839, the daughter of Benjamin Jennings Tucker (appointed Commissioner of Pilotage in December, 1840, and July, 1843) and Catharine Dickinson Tucker. The Tucker family had been prominent in Bermuda since Daniel Tucker was appointed Governor in 1616. The Jennings family of Bermuda included privateer Henry Jennings (died 1745).

His mother died in 1870[4] and his father remarried, to Drusilla Matthews,[5] his former servant who had been with the family when his first wife was alive.[2] George and Drusilla gave Reginald several half-siblings.[3]

Reginald Appleby married Edith Mary Gosling[6] at St. Paul's Church, in Paget, Bermuda, on the 18 September, 1899,and they had a daughter, Prudence Tucker (1905–1976), later Prudence Pearman. The family lived in Westmoreland, Pembroke Parish, Bermuda.[7][8]

Career

Appleby passed his final law exams in England in 1887.[9] He was in partnership with Reginald Gray, later Sir Reginald Gray, attorney-general of Bermuda, from 1893 to 1897 in Bermuda as Gray & Appleby.[10] In 1898 he founded his own eponymous law firm.[11] By 1903 he was a justice of the peace when he sat on the marine court of inquiry into the wreck of the S.S. Madiana.[12] In 1938 he and Sir Dudley Spurling merged their practices to establish Appleby & Spurling.[13] The year after Appleby's death in 1948, that firm merged with William Kempe to become Appleby Spurling Kempe (or Kemp), one of the predecessors of the firm that now trades as Appleby, the firm at the centre of the Paradise Papers leaks in 2017.[14][15]

He served in the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps (BVRC), commissioned as a Second-Lieutenant with seniority from the 9 March, 1895. In 1900 he was the acting Adjutant, with the rank of Captain. He was promoted to Major on the 5th of November, 1903, on becoming the Commanding Officer. In 1916 he was awarded the Volunteer Officers' Decoration.[16] During the First World War, the BVRC fulfilled its role within the Bermuda Garrison while also sending a contingent of 88 other ranks under the command of Appleby's cousin, Captain Richard Jennings Tucker, to join the 1st Battalion of the Lincolnshire Regiment on the Western Front in June, 1915. [17][18][19] Appleby remained in command of the BVRC 'til succeeded by Major Richard Jennings Tucker (later Lieutenant-Colonel) in 1920 (another cousin, Lieutenant-Colonel AT Gosling, ED, was to be Commanding Officer from 1935 to 1941. The BVRC (renamed the Bermuda Rifles in 1949) was amalgamated with the Bermuda Militia Artillery to form the Royal Bermuda Regiment in 1965, with Lieutenant-Colonel John Brownlow Tucker, another cousin, becoming the first Commanding Officer).[20]

He was appointed to the Legislative Council of Bermuda in 1928[21] and according to The Irish Times, citing reports in Bermuda's The Royal Gazette, spoke against the idea of the introduction of an income tax in Bermuda at a Legislative Council meeting in 1940, siding with "those who look on all income tax as man's last refinement of torture, to be resisted at all costs".[11]

Later life

Appleby was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in King George VI's 1947 New Year Honours for "Public services in Bermuda".[22] He died on 30 August 1948(1948-08-30) (aged 83) at Doctor's Hospital, New York, and was buried at Pembroke Cemetery in Bermuda.[6][23]

References
  1. "Reginald Woodifield Appleby". England and Wales Birth Registration Index. Family Search. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
  2. "George W Appleby". England and Wales Census, 1871. Family Search. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
  3. "George W Appleby". England and Wales Census, 1881. Family Search. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
  4. "Agnes Sterry Appleby". England and Wales Death Registration Index 1837–2007. Family Search. Retrieved 7 November 2017.
  5. "George Walton Appleby". Family Search. Retrieved 7 November 2017.
  6. "Reginald Appleby". New York City City Municipal Deaths. Family Search. Retrieved 9 November 2017.
  7. Home Journal, Hearst Corporation, Vol. 84 (1929), p. 38.
  8. Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage, and Companionage, Kelly's Directories, 1973.
  9. "The Incorporated Law Society". The Times. 19 November 1887. p. 4.
  10. Who's Who in Canada, Vol. 25. International Press, 1936. p. 350.
  11. Appleby, the offshore law firm with a record of compliance failures. Will Fitzgibbon, The Irish Times, 5 November 2017. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
  12. "Wreck Report for 'Madiana', 1903". Port Cities Southampton. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
  13. Martindale-Hubbell International Law Directory: Vol. 2: North America, South America, Central America, & the Caribbean. New Providence: Martindale-Hubbell. 2003. ISBN 9781561605897.
  14. "Paradise Papers: Who are Appleby, the lawyers at the centre of the leak?". BBC News. 5 November 2017. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
  15. Our History. Appleby, 2016. Retrieved 8 November 2017. Archived here.
  16. "War Office, 5th July 1916" (PDF). The London Gazette. 7 July 1916. p. 6745.
  17. The Royal Gazette, 26 January 1915: B.V.R.C. The Active Service Contingent. Memorandum From His Excellency The Governor. Appeal For Recruits.
  18. The Royal Gazette, 6 May 1915: Two Generations from St. David’s
  19. "PEMBROKE WESLEYAN CEMETERY". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 9 November 2017.
  20. [http://www.bermudaregiment.bm/about/history Royal Bermuda Regiment: History
  21. "Downing Street, 9th May 1928" (PDF). The Edinburgh Gazette. 15 May 1928. p. 580.
  22. "CENTRAL CHANCERY OF THE ORDERS OF KNIGHTHOOD, St. James's Palace, S.W.1 1st January, 1947" (PDF). Supplement to The London Gazette. 1 January 1947. p. 21.
  23. The Bermudian, Vol. 19 (1948), p. ccxi.
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