Historical Info

Wills Chandler was founded in 1891 by Mr Hugh Wills Chandler. Mr Wills Chandler went into practice after obtaining first class honours in the Law Society’s examinations and had his office in Warren Street (now Wote Street) in Basingstoke. His early assignments as a Solicitor included pursuing confirmation of tenancy for a property in Winton Square, Basingstoke and defending a publican in Overton who had been charged with permitting drunkenness on his premises. Mr Wills Chandler also had many assignments to recover debts with £20 being in the higher bracket! He was also involved in removing a tenant from a farm for rent arrears and in prosecuting two men for maliciously cutting gorse and heather from Hook Common.

As his practice flourished Mr Wills Chandler began to play an important role in town affairs. He was clerk to the magistrates for 40 years and also clerk to the Board of Guardians and to the Trustees of Basingstoke Commons. Mr Wills Chandler was also registrar for births, marriages and deaths. In the period between the two World Wars he was joined as a partner by Ernest Burrows and then after the 2nd World War by John Beach who had served in the Navy on the Arctic Convoys during the war. All three were involved in the town as well as running a busy general practice. Mr Beach took over as Clerk to the Trustees at St Michaels Church, and was a member of Basingstoke Choral Society and the Grange Players who provided amateur dramatics at the Haymarket Theatre in Basingstoke.

Mr Wills Chandler died in 1954 in his nineties and through his will the Penton Trust was set up to help meet the needs of elderly people and others. This Charitable Trust still exists today and the present senior partner is Chairman to the Trustees.

The firm moved to Chequers Road in March 1965 at the time when much of the old town was demolished including the original offices to make way for the new town development of Basingstoke. Mr Burrows retired at this time and Mr Beach ran the firm as a sole practitioner until Robert Innes-Ker joined the firm in 1970, becoming a partner in 1973. At that time Mr Innes-Ker was a Litigation lawyer mainly dealing with Magistrates’ Court cases and Divorce work until Andrew Bradley, the Coroner for North-East Hampshire, joined the firm in 1979 and took over this aspect, with Mr Innes-Ker moving over to take on Residential and Commercial Property work. Mr Bradley was made a Partner shortly thereafter, building up a successful Family Law Department before retiring in 2007 to continue his Coronership of North-East Hampshire.

Mr Beach retired in 1980 and Mr Innes-Ker became Senior Partner, a position he still holds. Andrew Hall joined the firm in 1982 and built up the Private Client side of the practice until his untimely death in 2005.

Tony Dodson joined the firm in 1999 with the objective of building up a viable Company and Commercial Department and this is now one of the major strengths of the firm. Mr Dodson became a partner in 2003.

Today, Wills Chandler remains a General Law practice which has highly effective Departments specialising in: Residential Conveyancing; Company/Commercial and Commercial Conveyancing; Private Client work; Private Family Law; Civil Litigation and Employment Law. The firm has retained its close links with the local community in Basingstoke. The current Partners are: Mr Robert Innes-Ker, Mr Tony Dodson and Mr Michael Le Fort.