Sir Joseph Alfred Sheridan (1882 – 26 December 1964) was an Irish lawyer and administrator who served as the Chief Justice of Kenya.

Biography

Born in

County Mayo County Mayo (; ga, Contae Mhaigh Eo, meaning "Plain of the Taxus baccata, yew trees") is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. In the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Conn ...

, Ireland in 1882. He was educated at Castleknock College and

Trinity College, Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

. 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 ...

King's Inns The Honorable Society of King's Inns ( ir, Cumann Onórach Óstaí an Rí) is the "Inn of Court" for the Bar of Ireland. Established in 1541, King's Inns is Ireland's oldest school of law and one of Ireland's significant historical environment ...

in Ireland in 1907 and thereafter entered the

British Colonial Service The Colonial Service, also known as His/Her Majesty's Colonial Service and replaced in 1954 by Her Majesty's Overseas Civil Service (HMOCS), was the British government service that administered most of Britain's overseas possessions, under the aut ...

in Nyasaland in 1908 as a junior clerk. In 1912, he was appointed assistant to the Attorney-General of Nyasaland and remained in the post until 1913 when he moved to the East Africa Protectorate to become a Resident Magistrate. In 1919, he was made a Judge on the East Africa Court of Appeal. The following year, he was promoted to a Judgeship on the Supreme Court for Eastern Africa. In 1929, he left Kenya to take up the position as

Chief Justice of Tanganyika The chief justice of Tanzania is the highest post in the judicial system of Tanzania. The chief justice is appointed by the president and presides over the Court of Appeal of Tanzania. History After the First World War, the former German-governed ...

. He was knighted in the 1932 King's Birthday Honours; returning to Kenya in 1934 to succeed Sir Jacob Barth as Chief Justice of Kenya.Law journal, 1965, The Law Journal, Volume 115 He retired as Chief Justice in 1946 and died in December 1964. His son, Sir Dermot (Joseph) Sheridan, later served as Chief Justice of Uganda and as a judge on the High Court of Kenya.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sheridan, Joseph 1882 births 1964 deaths Chief justices of Kenya 20th-century Irish lawyers Chief justices of Tanzania People educated at Castleknock College Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Nyasaland people Tanganyika (territory) judges British Kenya judges Alumni of King's Inns Knights Bachelor People from County Mayo