Ransley Samuel Thacker QC (1891 – 3 January 1966) was a British lawyer and judge. Employed in the colonial service, he served as Chief Justice of St Vincent (1931–1933), Attorney General of Fiji (1933-1938), and as a judge in British Kenya. He is best known for the jailing of Jomo Kenyatta.
Ransley Samuel Thacker | |
|---|---|
| 15th Attorney General of Fiji | |
| In office December 1933 – 1938 | |
| Monarchs | George V Edward VIII George VI |
| Governor | Sir Arthur Fletcher Cecil Barton(Acting) Sir Arthur Richards |
| Preceded by | Charles Gough Howell |
| Succeeded by | Edward Enoch Jenkins |
| Chief Justice of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | |
| Monarch | George V |
| Governor | Herbert Walter Peebles |
| Justice of the Supreme Court of Kenya | |
| In office 1938–1950 | |
| Monarch | George VI |
| Governor | Sir Robert Brooke-Popham Walter Harragin(Acting) Sir Henry Moore(Acting) Gilbert McCall Rennie(Acting) Sir Philip Mitchell |
| First Class Magistrate | |
| In office 1952–1953 | |
| Monarch | Elizabeth II |
| Governor | Sir Evelyn Baring |
| Preceded by | None (new office) |
| Succeeded by | None (office abolished) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1891[1] Nottingham, United Kingdom |
| Died | 3 January 1966[2] |
| Spouse(s) | Olive Frances Braithwaite m. 1915 |
| Children | 1 daughter, 1 son |
| Occupation | Lawyer, Jurist |
Legal and political career
editIn the early 1930s, Thacker served as Chief Justice of St Vincent, and was serving in that role as of 7 July 1933.[4]
Thacker took up the post of Attorney General of Fiji at the end of 1933, passing through Sydney en route to Suva on 21 December.[5]
Thacker served as judge on the Supreme Court of British Kenya from 1938 to 1950.[6] He retired to Nairobi on a £474 pension, which he supplemented by practicing law. He was called out of retirement on 17 November 1952, however, as a First Class Magistrate to preside over the trial of the Kapenguria Six — Jomo Kenyatta and five others accused of organizing the Mau Mau movement.[7][8] He was bribed for £20,000 by Governor Evelyn Baring from an emergency fund, as were the fabricated witnesses from the Attorney-General's office's funds.[9] On 8 April 1953, Thacker sentenced them to seven years' hard labour. In his summing up, Thacker declared:
You have successfully plunged many Africans back to a state which shows little humanity. You have persuaded them in secret to murder, burn and commit atrocities which will take many years to forget.[10]
He added:
You have let loose upon this land a flood of misery and unhappiness affecting the daily lives of the races in it, including your own people.[11]
Kenyatta remained imprisoned until 14 April 1959, and his civil rights were not fully restored until August 1961.
Personal life
editReferences
edit- ↑ "Thacker, Ransley Samuel (1891-1965) Colonial Judge". The National Archives. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
- ↑ Mr. R.S. Thacker Pacific Islands Monthly, February 1966, p. 153.
- ↑ "Mr. Ransley S. Thacker", East Africa and Rhodesia, 6 January 1966.
- ↑ "UK, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960 forRansley Thacker". Ancestry.com. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
- ↑ "Fremantle, Western Australia, Passenger Lists, 1897-1963 for Mr Ransley Samuel Thacker". Ancestry.com. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
- ↑ Elkins, Caroline (2005). Britain's Gulag: The Brutal End of Empire in Kenya. ISBN 9781844135486. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
- ↑ Reed, David E. (30 August 1953). "Institute of Current World Affairs" (PDF). Institute of Current World Affairs. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
- ↑ Anderson, David (30 December 2011). Histories of the Hanged: Britain's Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire. ISBN 9781780222882. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
- ↑ Elkins, Caroline (11 January 2005). Britain's Gulag : The Brutal End of Empire in Kenya. Henry Holt and Company, LLC. p. 40. ISBN 978-1-5299-4618-5.
- ↑ "1953: Seven years' hard labour for Kenyatta". BBC Home. 8 April 1953. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
- ↑ Meredith, Martin (September 2011). The State of Africa: A History of the Continent Since Independence. ISBN 9780857203892. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
- ↑ "Fremantle, Western Australia, Passenger Lists, 1897-1963 forMr Ransley Samuel Thacker". Ancestry.com. Retrieved 26 September 2015.