Albert van der Sandt Centlivres (13 January 1887 – 19 September 1966), was the

Chief Justice of South Africa The Chief Justice of South Africa is the most senior judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, Constitutional Court and head of the judiciary of South Africa, who exercises final authority over the functioning and management of all the c ...

from 1950 to 1957.

Biography

Centlivres was born in

Newlands Newlands may refer to: Places Australia * Newlands, Queensland, a locality in the Whitsunday Region New Zealand * Newlands, Wellington, a suburb of Wellington South Africa * Newlands, Cape Town, a suburb of Cape Town * Newlands, Johannesbur ...

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

, the son of Frederick James Centlivres and Albertina de Villiers. He was educated at the South African College School,

South African College The South African College was an educational institution in Cape Town, South Africa, which developed into the University of Cape Town (UCT) and the South African College Schools (SACS). History The process that would lead to the formation of t ...

(now the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

), where he took honours in Classics, and

New College, Oxford New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as its feeder school, New College is one of the oldest colleges at th ...

, where he was a

Rhodes Scholar The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...

and read Law, graduating BA and BCL. He was

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

by the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...

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 the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel ( post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of a queen, is a lawyer (usually a barrister or ...

in 1927. In 1935 he was appointed a judge of the

Cape Provincial Division The Western Cape Division of the High Court of South Africa (previously named the Cape Provincial Division and the Western Cape High Court, and commonly known as the Cape High Court) is a superior court of law with general jurisdiction over th ...

, 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 The Coloured vote constitutional crisis, also known as the Coloured vote case, was a constitutional crisis that occurred in the Union of South Africa during the 1950s as the result of an attempt by the Nationalist government to remove coloured v ...

, 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 The Chancellor of the University of Cape Town (UCT) is the ceremonial head of the university, representing it in the public sphere and conferring degrees in its name. The Chancellorship is a titular position; the chief executive of the university i ...

from 1950 until his death in 1966. 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 Alfred Neville Lewis (1895–1972) was a South African artist. He was born in Cape Town, Cape Colony, and educated there and, later, at the Slade School of Art in London. His father was the Reverend A. J. S. Lewis, who was Mayor of Cape Town ...

was burned by demonstrators during the

Rhodes Must Fall Rhodes Must Fall was a protest movement that began on 9 March 2015, originally directed against a statue at the University of Cape Town (UCT) that commemorates Cecil Rhodes. The campaign for the statue's removal received global attention and ...

upheaval at the

in February 2016.

References

External links

List of archive material
Chief justices of South Africa 1887 births 1966 deaths Alumni of New College, Oxford 20th-century King's Counsel South African Queen's Counsel South African Rhodes Scholars Members of the Middle Temple Chancellors of the University of Cape Town South African judges {{SouthAfrica-law-bio-stub