Ransley Thacker
British lawyer and judge (1891–1966)
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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.
Edward VIII
George VI
Cecil Barton(Acting)
Sir Arthur Richards
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
In 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.