Catalogue description William Evelyn Wylie: Papers

William Wylie was born in Dublin, but grew up in Coleraine. He was educated at Coleraine Academical Institution and Trinity College, Dublin, and was called to the Irish bar in 1905, becoming a King's Counsel in 1914. From 1915 to 1918 he was a lieutenant in the Territorial Army, serving with the Trinity College Officer Training Corps in Dublin, where he took part in the defence of the university and its environs during the 1916 Dublin rising. He was subsequently appointed prosecuting officer at the trial of the leaders of the rising.

After serving in the offices of the Adjutant-General and the Attorney-General of Ireland, he became Law Adviser to the Irish Government, 1919-1920. He was appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court of Judicature of Ireland in 1920 and of the High Court of the Irish Free State in 1924, serving as a Judicial Commissioner to the Irish Land Commission until his retirement in 1936.

Wylie held a number of appointments on public and private bodies, including the Dublin United Tramways Company, which merged with the Great Southern Railway to form the Córas Iompair Éireann. He was chairman of the Irish Railways Wages Board, 1922-1944; vice-chairman of the Irish Betting Control Board, 1930-1945; president of the Royal Dublin Society, 1939-1941, and chairman of its Executive Committee, 1937-1960; vice-chairman of the Irish Red Cross Society, 1939-1946; and was associated with various organisations in the fields of charity, hunting, racing and show-jumping.