Sir William James Smith (1853–1912) was a British jurist who served as the chief justice of the

Supreme Court of Cyprus The Supreme Court of Cyprus ( el, Ανώτατο Δικαστήριο Κύπρου, Anótato Dikastírio Kýprou) is the highest court of the Republic of Cyprus. It was established in 1964 from a merger of the Supreme Constitutional Court and the H ...

, British Guiana and the Transvaal. He was knighted by

letters patent Letters patent ( la, litterae patentes) ( always in the plural) are a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order issued by a monarch, president or other head of state, generally granting an office, right, monopoly, titl ...

in 1896. Smith was born in 1853 and was educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, he 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 1875. He became the Puisne Judge of the

Gold Coast Colony The Gold Coast was a British Crown colony on the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa from 1821 until its independence in 1957 as Ghana. The term Gold Coast is also often used to describe all of the four separate jurisdictions that were under the ad ...

when he was aged 27. Smith moved to Cyprus in 1882 as Judge of the Supreme Court before becoming the Chief Justice. From 1897 he was Chief Justice of

British Guiana British Guiana was a British colony, part of the mainland British West Indies, which resides on the northern coast of South America. Since 1966 it has been known as the independent nation of Guyana. The first European to encounter Guiana was S ...

. In 1904 he was appointed Judge of the Transvaal high court. Smith married in 1896 to Ella March. He died in London on 15 November 1912 aged 59.

References

Knights Bachelor British Cyprus judges 1853 births 1912 deaths {{UK-law-bio-stub