Ernest Frederick Watermeyer Explained

Honorific-Prefix:The Right Honourable
Ernest Frederick Watermeyer
Honorific-Suffix:PC, QC
Order:9th
Office:Chief Justice of South Africa
Term Start:1943
Term End:1950
Predecessor:Nicolaas Jacobus de Wet
Successor:Albert van der Sandt Centlivres
Office2:Judge of the Appellate Division
Term Start2:1937
Term End2:1942
Office3:Judge of the Cape Provincial Division of the Supreme Court of South Africa
Term Start3:1922
Term End3:1937
Birth Date:12 October 1880
Birth Place:Graaff-Reinet, Cape Colony (now Eastern Cape, South Africa)
Death Place:Hermanus, Cape Province, Union of South Africa
Children:Jack Watermeyer
Alma Mater:University of Cambridge
Occupation:Lawyer and judge
Profession:Barrister

Ernest Frederick Watermeyer, PC, QC (12 October 1880 – 18 January 1958), was the Chief Justice of South Africa from 1943 to 1950.[1]

Watermeyer was born in Graaff-Reinet in 1880. He was educated at Stellenbosch Gymnasium, Bath College and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he read Mathematics, then Law.

He was called to the bar in England by the Inner Temple in 1904, and admitted to the Cape bar in 1905. He became a King's Counsel in 1921. From 1922 to 1937, he was a judge of the Cape Provincial Division of the Supreme Court of South Africa. In 1937, he was promoted to the Supreme Court's Appellate Division.

In 1943, he was appointed Chief Justice of South Africa and was sworn of the Privy Council the same year, the last Chief Justice of South Africa to be made a Privy Counsellor.[2] He served as Officer Administering the Government of the Union of South Africa in 1950, and retired the same year.[3]

Notes and References

  1. Book: Southern Cross: Civil Law and Common Law in South Africa . . Zimmermann, Reinhard . 1996 . 125. 978-0-19-826087-5 .
  2. van der Westhuizen . Johann . September 1980 . Our chief justices: E.F. Watermeyer (1943-1950) . De Rebus . 456-458.
  3. News: 19 January 1958 . Mr. E. F. Watermeyer . 16 . The Sunday Times.