Obituaries
Chief Justice Meredith was ‘a gentleman with exemplary charm and manners’, and ‘a man of fine scholarly attainments.’ He possessed ‘troops’ of friends and was ‘held in the highest respect in the City and Province of Quebec, by all classes of the community’ and even more extraordinary for the time, was described as being as popular amongst the French as the English. This is noticeably apparent in an article written about him in ‘L’Opinion Publique’ on 10 July 1879 :
Le Juge-en-Chef est l’urbanite meme, il est attentive comme un Francais de l’ancien regime. A cette grande affabilite qui n’est nulle part plus appreciable que sur le banc d’un tribunal. Le Juge Meredith joint un savoir etendu, un tact parfait, un judgement tres sur. Il voit au fond s’egarent, les avocats qui brouillent les faits, aux elements fondamentaux dont il faut s’inspirer pour retrouver la verite. Tout cela avec infiniment de benevolence et toutes les formes de la politesse.
‘Esteemed for his high character, wide knowledge and amiable disposition’, ‘his lofty conception of duty, his great learning, and his gentleness of character commanded the admiration and affection of the bench and bar of Quebec.’ Sir William Colles Meredith died February 26, 1894, aged eighty two after a short illness, and he was buried with many of his family at Mount Hermon Cemetery, Quebec. Part of the inscription on his gravestone reads, '...Thoughtful consideration for others marked all his acts and made bright his daily walk through life.'
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