William Alfred Wearing

William Alfred Wearing KC (12 November 1816 – 24 February 1875) was a prominent jurist in the Colony of South Australia, who lost his life in the wreck of S.S. Gothenburg.

He immediately began practising and it was not long before he was taken into partnership with the Charles Fenn, one of the largest practices in Adelaide.

[1] In 1866 he served on the secret court of inquiry which forced the resignation of Police Commissioner Peter Warburton.

Part of his duties involved holding the Palmerston Circuit Court in the Northern Territory, from where he was returning when the Gothenburg was wrecked.

[1] Wearing's place on the Bench was taken by Justice Randolph Isham Stow Q.C., but he died three years later on 16 September 1878.