Colonial Despatches

William Atherton was a British lawyer and politician who was appointed Judge-Advocate of the Fleet, and standing counsel to the Admiralty in 1855. He was knighted, as a matter of course, when he was given the position of Solicitor General in 1859. In 1861 he was promoted to Attorney General. He died on 22 January 1864, at the age of fifty-eight.1

• 1. Deaths of Distinguished Persons, Observer (London), 24 January 1864, 3.