Sir Johannes (John) Wilhelmus Wessels (1862–1936) was an

Afrikaner Afrikaners () are a South African ethnic group descended from Free Burghers, predominantly Dutch settlers first arriving at the Cape of Good Hope in the 17th and 18th centuries.Entry: Cape Colony. ''Encyclopædia Britannica Volume 4 Part 2: ...

judge of the Appellate Division from 1923 to 1936 and Chief Justice of South Africa from 1932 to 1936.

Early life and education

He was the son of a Cape solicitor J.C. Wessels. He attended the

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 ...

. After matriculating he attended the University of Cape Town and obtained a BA Honours in 1882. With a scholarship to read law, he attended

Downing College, Cambridge Downing College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge and currently has around 650 students. Founded in 1800, it was the only college to be added to Cambridge University between 1596 and 1869, and is often described as the olde ...

and graduated in 1885 with a Law Tripos. He won a scholarship in international and constitutional law at the Middle Temple and took the

Bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

in 1886.

Career

He returned to South Africa and joined the Bar in the Cape Colony and the Transvaal Bar in 1887. He made his name as the lawyer for the Witwatersrand gold mine owners challenge of the patents for John Stewart MacArthur's

MacArthur-Forrest cyanidation process Gold cyanidation (also known as the cyanide process or the MacArthur-Forrest process) is a hydrometallurgical technique for extracting gold from low-grade ore by converting the gold to a water-soluble coordination complex. It is the most commonly ...

. He won the case in 1896, with the patents declared invalid. He defended the Lionel Phillips, Frank Rhodes, Sir George Farrar and John Hays Hammond at their treason trial in Pretoria in 1896 after the Jameson Raid failed. He also supported the

Uitlanders Uitlander, Afrikaans for "foreigner" (lit. "outlander"), was a foreign (mainly British) migrant worker during the Witwatersrand Gold Rush in the independent Transvaal Republic following the discovery of gold in 1886. The limited rights granted to ...

cause but did not support the idea of war between Britain and the Transvaal Republic. During the Second Boer War he returned to Johannesburg in 1900 as legal advisor to Lord Roberts and later Lord Kitchener. After the end of the Second Boer War, the government of the newly created British Colony of Transvaal established a

Supreme Court of Transvaal The Gauteng Division of the High Court of South Africa is a superior court of law which has general jurisdiction over the South African province of Gauteng and the eastern part of North West province. The main seat of the division is at Pretoria, ...

in April 1902. The governor,

Lord Milner Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner, (23 March 1854 – 13 May 1925) was a British statesman and colonial administrator who played a role in the formulation of British foreign and domestic policy between the mid-1890s and early 1920s. From De ...

, appointed Wessels as one of three puisne judges, with Sir James Rose Innes as Chief Justice. He was knighted in 1909. On the establishment of the Union of South Africa in 1910, he became a judge of the

Transvaal Provincial Division The Gauteng Division of the High Court of South Africa is a superior court of law which has general jurisdiction over the South African province of Gauteng and the eastern part of North West province. The main seat of the division is at Pretoria, w ...

. In 1920 he became the Judge President of the Transvaal Provincial Division and then elevated to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of South Africa in 1923. In 1932 he became its Chief Justice and the following year a member of the

Privy Council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

Marriage

Wessels married twice. Helen Duff in 1891 and after she died in 1925, married her sister Agnes in 1928.

References

South African judges 1862 births 1936 deaths Chief justices of South Africa South African knights Knights Bachelor Afrikaner people Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Members of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council {{SouthAfrica-law-bio-stub