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Ransley Thacker

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British lawyer and judge (1891–1966)

The HonourableRansley Samuel ThackerKC
15th Attorney General of Fiji
In office
December 1933 – 1938
MonarchsGeorge V
Edward VIII
George VI
GovernorSir Arthur Fletcher
Cecil Barton(Acting)
Sir Arthur Richards
Preceded byCharles Gough Howell
Succeeded byEdward Enoch Jenkins
Chief Justice of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
MonarchGeorge V
GovernorHerbert Walter Peebles
Justice of the Supreme Court of Kenya
In office
1938–1950
MonarchGeorge VI
GovernorSir Robert Brooke-Popham
Walter Harragin(Acting)
Sir Henry Moore(Acting)
Gilbert McCall Rennie(Acting)
Sir Philip Mitchell
First Class Magistrate
In office
1952–1953
MonarchElizabeth II
GovernorSir Evelyn Baring
Preceded byNone (new office)
Succeeded byNone (office abolished)
Personal details
Born1891
Nottingham, United Kingdom
Died3 January 1966
Chipunga, Rhodesia
NationalityBritish subject
Spouse(s)Olive Frances Braithwaite
m. 1915
Children1 daughter, 1 son
OccupationLawyer, Jurist

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.

Legal and political career

In the early 1930s, Thacker served as Chief Justice of St Vincent, and was serving in that role as of 7 July 1933.

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.

Thacker served as judge on the Supreme Court of British Kenya from 1938 to 1950. 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. 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.

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.

Kenyatta remained imprisoned until 14 April 1959, and his civil rights were not fully restored until August 1961.

Personal life

Thacker was the son of Henry Thacker and Eliza Jackson.

In 1915, Thacker married Olive Frances Braithwaite in London. They had three children, Daphne Elinor (born 1917), Derek (born c.1919) and Derwent Allan (born 1921).

References

  1. "Thacker, Ransley Samuel (1891-1965) Colonial Judge". The National Archives. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
  2. Mr. R.S. Thacker Pacific Islands Monthly, February 1966, p. 153.
  3. "Mr. Ransley S. Thacker", East Africa and Rhodesia, 6 January 1966.
  4. "UK, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960 forRansley Thacker". Ancestry.com. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
  5. "Fremantle, Western Australia, Passenger Lists, 1897-1963 forMr Ransley Samuel Thacker". Ancestry.com. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
  6. Elkins, Caroline (2005). Britain's Gulag: The Brutal End of Empire in Kenya. ISBN 9781844135486. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
  7. Reed, David E. (30 August 1953). "Institute of Current World Affairs" (PDF). Institute of Current World Affairs. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
  8. 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.
  9. "1953: Seven years' hard labour for Kenyatta". BBC Home. 8 April 1953. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
  10. Meredith, Martin (September 2011). The State of Africa: A History of the Continent Since Independence. ISBN 9780857203892. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
  11. "Fremantle, Western Australia, Passenger Lists, 1897-1963 forMr Ransley Samuel Thacker". Ancestry.com. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
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