Ransley Samuel Thacker (1891 – 3 January 1966) was a British lawyer and judge. Employed in the colonial service, he served as

Chief Justice of St Vincent The Chief Justice of St Vincent was the head of the Supreme Court of Saint Vincent in Saint Vincent, an island member of the Windward Islands in the West Indies. The court was replaced by the Windward and Leeward Islands Supreme Court and the W ...

(1931–1933),

Attorney General of Fiji The Attorney-General is a political and legal officer in Fiji. The attorney-general is the chief law officer of the State, and has responsibility for supervising Fijian law and advising the government on legal matters. Like other members of the ...

(1933-1938), and as a judge in

British Kenya British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

. He is best known for the jailing of

Jomo Kenyatta Jomo Kenyatta (22 August 1978) was a Kenyan anti-colonial activist and politician who governed Kenya as its Prime Minister from 1963 to 1964 and then as its first President from 1964 to his death in 1978. He was the country's first indigenous ...

Legal and political career

In the early 1930s, Thacker served as

, and was serving in that role as of 7 July 1933. Thacker took up the post of

at the end of 1933, passing through

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

en route to

Suva Suva () is the capital and largest city of Fiji. It is the home of the country's largest metropolitan area and serves as its major port. The city is located on the southeast coast of the island of Viti Levu, in Rewa Province, Central Divi ...

on 21 December. Thacker served as judge on the Supreme Court of

from 1938 to 1950. He retired to

Nairobi Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper ha ...

on a £474 pension, which he supplemented by practicing law. He was called out of retirement on 17 November 1952, however, as a First Class

Magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judici ...

to preside over the trial of the

Kapenguria Six The Kapenguria Six – Bildad Kaggia, Kung'u Karumba, Jomo Kenyatta, Fred Kubai, Paul Ngei, and Achieng' Oneko – were six leading Kenyan nationalists who were arrested in 1952, tried at Kapenguria in 1952–53, and imprisoned thereafter in No ...

—

and five others accused of organizing the Mau Mau movement. On 8 April 1953, Thacker sentenced them to seven years' hard labour. In his summing up, Thacker declared: He added: Kenyatta remained imprisoned until 14 April 1959, and his civil rights were not fully restored until August 1961.

Personal life

Thacker was the son of Henry Thacker and Eliza Jackson. In 1915, Thacker married Olive Frances Braithwaite in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. They had three children, Daphne Elinor (born 1917), Derek (born c.1919) and Derwent Allan (born 1921).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thacker, Ransley 1891 births 1966 deaths Attorneys General of the Colony of Fiji Attorneys-general of Fiji Members of the Legislative Council of Fiji Chief justices of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines British Kenya judges British Windward Islands judges People from Nottingham British expatriates in Fiji English King's Counsel 20th-century English lawyers