Montagu Williams

(30 September 1835 – 23 December 1892) was an English teacher, British Army officer, actor, playwright, barrister and magistrate.

Williams was educated at Eton College and started his career as a schoolmaster at Ipswich School.

In the early 1860s he wrote several farces in partnership with F. C. Burnand,[1] He later went onto the stage and was called to the bar in 1862.

In 1879 he was appointed junior Treasury counsel, retiring from the post in 1886 due to a growth on the larynx which seriously affected his voice,[2] being succeeded by Sir Charles Willie Mathews, 1st Baronet.

His clients included Catherine Wilson, whom he defended twice on murder charges; George Henry Lamson, hanged in 1882 for poisoning his brother-in-law;[3] Percy Lefroy Mapleton, the "railway murderer", hanged in 1881;[3] John Young, acquitted of manslaughter after his opponent in a boxing match died, establishing a legal precedent.