Sir William Montagu Manning KCMG, QC (20 June 1811 – 27 February 1895)[1] was an English-born Australian politician, judge and University of Sydney chancellor.

In collaboration with S. Neville, Manning prepared and published Reports of Cases Relating to the Duty and Offices of Magistrates (3 volumes, 1834-8), and was the author of Proceedings in Courts of Revision in the Isle of Wight (1836).

In 1842 he was offered the position of resident judge at Port Phillip District, and in September 1844 became Solicitor General for New South Wales.

Manning was nominated to the New South Wales Legislative Council by Governor Fitzroy in October 1851,[1] and assisted in the preparation of William Wentworth's constitution bill.

In February 1875, though he was then a member of the upper house he was asked to form a ministry, but was unable to obtain sufficient support.

He fought for and succeeded in getting increased grants from the government, stressed the need for more grammar schools to be created, and for the provision of university scholarships.

Manning saved the university £15,000 by his discovery that the British taxation commissioners were charging succession duty on the John Henry Challis estate on too high a scale.

[3] Manning's portrait by Sir John Watson Gordon, paid for by public subscription is in the MacLaurin Hall at Sydney University.