George French (1817–1881) was a British judge. He was the Chief Justice of both the Supreme Court of

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...

and the

British Supreme Court for China and Japan The British Supreme Court for China (originally the British Supreme Court for China and Japan) was a court established in the Shanghai International Settlement to try cases against British subjects in China, Japan and Korea under the principles ...

Early life

French was born in 1817, in Tortola, the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

, His father, Mark Dyer French, was a barrister in the West Indies who had also served at one time as Registrar of the Court of Common Pleas of the

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. French went to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he obtained a B.A (jun. op.) in 1839 and an MA in 1842. His father died while he was at university and left him the relatively large sum for the time of £5,000.

Career

French was called to the Bar at

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

in 1844. As a barrister, French "did not have a large business in court." But he was well known in the courts as a law reporter for ''The Times'' and the ''Law Journal'' in the court of the Vice Chancellor. For a number of years he sat as a deputy

county court A county court is a court based in or with a jurisdiction covering one or more counties, which are administrative divisions (subnational entities) within a country, not to be confused with the medieval system of ''county courts'' held by the high ...

judge. In 1867 French was appointed Chief Justice of the courts of

. He also sat as a Judge of the Mixed Courts in Sierra Leone from 1871 to 1875. In his capacity as Chief Justice, he was also Acting Governor of Sierra Leone from December 1874 to 1875. In 1875, the Sierra Leone government faced serious financial difficulties and French was placed on a pension. In 1877, French was appointed Chief Judge of the

in Shanghai International Settlement, Shanghai, replacing Sir Edmund Hornby. In 1878, his title was changed to Chief Justice.

Death

French died in office in

Kobe Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, whic ...

on November 13, 1881. He was buried in Onohama Cemetery in Kobe. His coffin was carried to the cemetery by sailors from HMS Flying Fish.London and China Telegraph, Jan 9, 1882, p26 He was succeeded by Richard Rennie. His grave was moved to Futatabi Cemetery after World War II where it remains to this day.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:French, George 1817 births 1881 deaths Sierra Leone Colony and Protectorate judges British Supreme Court for China judges Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Chief justices of Sierra Leone People from Tortola 19th-century English judges

Early life

Career

Death

Further reading

References