Sir Christopher Rawlinson (10 July 1806 – 28 March 1888) was an English colonial judge who was Chief Justice of Madras. Rawlinson was born at Combe, Hampshire, the second son of police magistrate John Rawlinson (1777/8-1847) of New Place, Alresford, and of Clatford and Combe, Hampshire, by his wife Felicia, daughter of Thomas Watson, of Haydon Hall, Middlesex. He was educated at the Charterhouse and at Trinity College, Cambridge (B.A. 1828, M.A. 1831). Called to the bar at the Middle Temple (as his father had been) in 1831, he joined the western circuit in 1832, and was recorder of Portsmouth from 1840 to 1847, when he was appointed recorder of Prince of Wales Island, Singapore, and Malacca. In 1847 he was knighted.