Sir Henry Spencer Hardtman Berkeley (6 September 1851 – 30 September 1918 ), was a barrister, Attorney General and Chief Justice of Fiji and

Attorney-General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

Early life

Berkeley was the third son of Thomas Berkeley Hardtman Berkeley and Alice Hart Rawlins, of St. Kitts. He was educated for the legal profession and called to the bar at the Inner Temple in June 1873. In 1878, Berkeley married Katherine Cassin, daughter of F. S. Cassin of Antigua in 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 Greate ...

. They had three children: Katharine Margaret, Marjorie, and Maurice Anthony.

Leeward Islands

Berkeley was admitted to the bar of the Leeward Islands in July 1874. He filled various legal and official posts in the Leeward Islands. After acting as Attorney General in an interim capacity (1877–1878), he became Solicitor General from 1878 to 1883, when he became Acting Colonial Secretary.

Fiji

In 1885, he was appointed Attorney General of Fiji in succession to Fielding Clarke who was appointed

Chief Justice of Fiji The chief justice is Fiji's highest judicial officer. The office and its responsibilities are set out in Chapter 5 of the 2013 Constitution of Fiji. The Chief Justice is appointed by the President on the advice of the Prime Minister Prime Mi ...

and

Chief Judicial Commissioner for the Western Pacific The Chief Justice of the High Commissioner's Court, more commonly known as the Chief Judicial Commissioner for the Western Pacific, was the chief judicial officer throughout the British Western Pacific Territories from 1877 through 1976. This was ...

. As Attorney-General he acted as Chief Justice when Clarke was on leave. In 1889, he succeeded Clarke in both roles. He acted for a brief time as

Governor of Fiji Fiji was a British Crown colony from 1874 to 1970, and an independent dominion in the Commonwealth from 1970 to 1987. During this period, the head of state was the British monarch, but in practice his or her functions were normally exercised loca ...

. Berkeley was knighted in the Queen's Birthday Honours of 20 May 1896.

Hong Kong

In what was seen as a slightly strange move from the bench back to the bar, in 1902, Berkeley accepted the position of

for

. In 1904 he was considered for the position of Chief Justice of Hong Kong on the retirement of W. Meigh Goodman. Francis Piggott was appointed instead. Berkeley acted as Chief Justice of Hong Kong on two occasions. He was appointed a King's Counsel in Hong Kong in 1906. He resigned as Attorney General in 1906 to enter full-time private practice. William Rees-Davies took over the role in 1907. Berkeley continued to practice in Hong Kong until 1912. After retirement as attorney general, he continued to serve on the

Hong Kong Legislative Council The Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (LegCo) is the unicameral legislature of Hong Kong. It sits under China's "one country, two systems" constitutional arrangement, and is the power centre of Hong Kong' ...

which he had been a member of as Attorney General. He also acted as Attorney General in 1909. Berkeley also served as Chairman of the Hong Kong Volunteer Reserve Association, which consisted of men over 35 years of age. The VRA's principal aim was the encouragement of rifle shooting.

Later life

After returning to England, he was a member of the West Sussex County Council from 1913. Berkeley died on 30 September 1918 in England.London Gazette, 12 November 1918, p. 13350.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berkeley, Henry Spencer 1851 births 1918 deaths Attorneys General of Hong Kong Chief justices of Fiji Members of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong Members of the Executive Council of Hong Kong Members of West Sussex County Council Hong Kong Queen's Counsel Colony of Fiji judges Attorneys General of the Colony of Fiji Attorneys-general of Fiji Attorneys General of the Leeward Islands People from Saint Kitts People from West Sussex Ethnic minority Fijian politicians Chief judicial commissioners for the Western Pacific Chief secretaries (British Empire) Knights Bachelor Lawyers awarded knighthoods