Richard Wild (judge)
{{Use New Zealand English|date=November 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2014}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix = The Right Honourable
| name = Sir Richard Wild
| honorific-suffix = {{postnominals|country=NZL|size=100%|GBE|KCMG|QC}}
| order = 9th
| office = Chief Justice of New Zealand
| term_start = 18 January 1966
| term_end = 20 January 1978
| predecessor = Harold Barrowclough
| successor = Ronald Davison
| appointer = Sir Bernard Fergusson
| nominator = Keith Holyoake
| birth_name = Herbert Richard Churton Wild
| birth_date = {{birth date|1912|9|20|df=y}}
| birth_place = Blenheim, New Zealand
| death_date = {{death date and age|1978|5|22|1912|9|20|df=y}}
| death_place = Wellington, New Zealand
| relatives = {{ubl|Leonard Wild (father)|John Wild (son)|John White (brother-in-law)|Douglas White (nephew)}}
}}
Sir Herbert Richard Churton Wild {{postnominals|country=NZL|GBE|KCMG|QC}} (20 September 1912 – 22 May 1978) was the ninth Chief Justice of New Zealand.
Family
Wild was born in Blenheim in 1912. His father, Leonard Wild, was at that time science teacher at Marlborough High School.{{DNZB|title=Wild, Leonard John |first=William |last=Renwick |id=4w16 |access-date=31 May 2021}} He attended Feilding Agricultural High School. His sister Dora later married the jurist John White.{{cite web |title=Hon Sir John Charles White MBE, 1911–2007 |url= https://www.lawsociety.org.nz/news-and-communications/people-in-the-law/obituaries/obituaries-list/hon-sir-john-charles-white-mbe,-1911-2007 |publisher=New Zealand Law Society |access-date=12 April 2021 |archive-date=11 June 2020 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200611032511/https://www.lawsociety.org.nz/news-and-communications/people-in-the-law/obituaries/obituaries-list/hon-sir-john-charles-white-mbe,-1911-2007 |date=December 2007}} His son, John Wild, was a judge at the High Court and then the Court of Appeal.{{cite news |title=From judge's bench to woodworking bench – dovetailing into retirement |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/90571694/from-judges-bench-to-woodworking-bench--dovetailing-into-retirement |access-date=4 May 2021 |work=Stuff |date=17 March 2017}}
Chief justice
He famously decided the case of Fitzgerald v Muldoon in 1976.{{cn|date=April 2021}}
Wild was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 1977. He resigned as Chief Justice in early 1978 and died shortly after.{{DNZB|last=Spiller |first=Peter |id=5w31 |title=Wild, Herbert Richard Churton |access-date=2021-04-12}}
References
{{Reflist}}
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{{s-bef|before=Harold Barrowclough}}
{{s-ttl|title=Chief Justice of New Zealand|years=1966–1978}}
{{s-aft|after=Ronald Davison}}
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{{New Zealand Chief Justices}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wild, Richard}}
Category:New Zealand Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George
Category:New Zealand Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire
Category:20th-century New Zealand judges
Category:Victoria University of Wellington alumni
Category:People from Blenheim, New Zealand
Category:Chief justices of New Zealand
Category:High Court of New Zealand judges
Category:Members of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council
Category:New Zealand Army officers
Category:New Zealand King's Counsel
Category:Solicitors-general of New Zealand
Category:People educated at Feilding High School
Category:New Zealand members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom