Albert van der Sandt Centlivres explained

Honorific-Prefix:The Honourable
Albert van der Sandt Centlivres
Order:10th
Office:Chief Justice of South Africa
Term Start:1950
Term End:1957
Appointer:Gideon Brand van Zyl
Predecessor:Ernest Frederick Watermeyer
Successor:Henry Allan Fagan
Office2:Judge of Appeal of the Supreme Court of South Africa
Term Start2:1939
Term End2:1950
Appointer2:Sir Patrick Duncan
Office3:Judge of the Cape Provincial Division
Term Start3:1935
Term End3:1939
Appointer3:The Earl of Clarendon
Birth Date:13 January 1887
Birth Place:Cape Town, Cape Colony
Death Date:19 September 1966
Death Place:Cape Town, Cape Province, South Africa
Nationality:South African
Alma Mater:South African College
New College, Oxford
Occupation:Judge
Profession:Lawyer

Albert van der Sandt Centlivres (13 January 1887 – 19 September 1966[1]), was the Chief Justice of South Africa from 1950 to 1957.[2]

Biography

Centlivres was born in Newlands, Cape Town, the son of Frederick James Centlivres and Albertina de Villiers. He was educated at the South African College School, South African College (now the University of Cape Town), where he took honours in Classics, and New College, Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar and read Law, graduating BA and BCL. He was called to the bar by the Middle Temple in 1910 and admitted as an advocate of the Cape provincial division in 1911. During the First World War, he served in South-West Africa as a private. He became a King's Counsel in 1927.

In 1935 he was appointed a judge of the Cape Provincial Division, and in 1939 he became a Judge of Appeal in the Appellate Division, South Africa's highest court. He was best known for his judgments during the Coloured vote constitutional crisis, in which he rebuffed the government's attempts at disenfranchising non-white voters in the Cape Province.

Centlivres was Chancellor of the University of Cape Town from 1950 until his death in 1966.[3] The Centlivres Building on the university's upper campus is named after him.

The painting Portrait of Albert van de Sandt Centlivres by Neville Lewis was burned by demonstrators during the Rhodes Must Fall upheaval at the University of Cape Town in February 2016.[4]

External links

Notes and References

  1. In Memoriam: The Hon. A. v. d. S. Centlivres . South African Law Journal . 83 . 387 . 1966.
  2. Book: Southern cross: civil law and common law in South Africa . Reinhard . Zimmermann . Daniel . Visser . Oxford University Press . 1996 . 126.
  3. News: University community called to nominate candidates for chancellor . Monday Paper . University of Cape Town . 29 March 2010 . 21 August 2011.
  4. Web site: Here is the list of art destroyed on UCT . Pertsovsky . Natalie . GroundUp News . 9 June 2017 . 27 June 2019 .