Specialising in maritime law, he presided over a number of boards of enquiry into naval events during the Second World War.
Alfred was born in Epsom, the son of Thomas Townsend Bucknill, a judge and Member of Parliament, and Annie Bell (née Ford).
He was educated at Charterhouse School and Trinity College, Oxford and was called to the Bar in 1903.
Alfred became a judge and was knighted in 1935,[1] specialising in probate and shipping.
[2] Sir Alfred presided over further boards; for the sinking of the battlecruiser HMS Repulse and the battleship HMS Prince of Wales by Japanese aircraft off Malaya in December 1941,[3] and for the "Channel Dash" in February 1942 when three large German warships had traversed the English Channel almost unscathed,[4] Alfred married Brenda Boulnois (1879–1953) in 1905.