The dapper fellow pictured is Jesse Gregson, who founded a firm of solicitors in 1788: the year when the First Fleet arrived in Australia, the American War of Independence was a recent memory, and George III was on the throne with his son yet to be appointed Regent.

Gregson’s distinctions include being appointed ‘The Solicitor for Prosecuting Felons’ and helping Sir Robert Peel prepare legislation to found the Metropolitan Police. In 1887, the year of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, Jesse’s great-grandson, Leonard, became a partner. In 1901, Leonard was joined by Frederick W Wareham who had moved to Wimbledon. Here, he sheltered and represented the exiled Emile Zola following the Dreyfus case. The Wimbledon branch is now Gregson’s main office, from where the firm is celebrating its 225th anniversary, Michael Creamore, employment partner, tells Obiter. Can anyone beat that?