Sir Thomas Wagstaffe Haycraft (5 October 1858 – 16 July 1936) was an English barrister of 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 ...

. Haycraft served as

Chief Justice of Grenada The Chief Justice of Grenada is the head of the Supreme Court of Grenada which consists of the High Court with three justices and a two-tier Court of Appeal. The original High Court of Grenada was replaced by the Windward and Leeward Islands Supre ...

from 1916 to 1921 and Chief Justice of Palestine from 1921 to 1927. In the latter role, he headed the

Haycraft Commission of Inquiry The Haycraft Commission of Inquiry was a Royal Commission set up to investigate the Jaffa riots of 1921, but its remit was widened and its report entitled "Palestine: Disturbances in May 1921". The report blamed the Arabs for the violence, but i ...

which looked into the causes of the Jaffa Riots.Daniel Monk. ''An Aesthetic Occupation: The Immediacy of Architecture and the Palestinian Conflict - Terrible Episodes.'' (Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 2002) p. 156

Life and career

Haycraft was born in

Islington, London Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the ar ...

, the son of actuary John Berry Haycraft (1832–1862) and his wife, Mary Wyatt Candler. John Berry Haycraft was his older brother. He was educated at St. John's College, Oxford, and in 1885 was called to the Bar by the

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and ...

. He practised on the South Eastern Circuit and served as an arbitrator on the London Chamber of Arbitration and as an examiner of the High Court. In 1899, he was appointed President of the District Court of

Larnaca Larnaca ( el, Λάρνακα ; tr, Larnaka) is a city on the south east coast of Cyprus and the capital of the district of the same name. It is the third-largest city in the country, after Nicosia and Limassol, with a metro population of 1 ...

. After 12 years in

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...

, he was transferred as Police Magistrate to

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

, before being transferred again in 1913 to be a

Puisne Judge A puisne judge or puisne justice (; from french: puisné or ; , 'since, later' + , 'born', i.e. 'junior') is a dated term for an ordinary judge or a judge of lesser rank of a particular court. Use The term is used almost exclusively in common law ...

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It ...

. In 1916, he was promoted to Chief Justice of Grenada. In 1921, he went to Palestine to serve as the first British Chief Justice of Palestine. He retired in 1927 and died in Surrey in 1936. In 1891, he married Pauline Richard, daughter of Captain Paul Richard of the

French Imperial Guard The Imperial Guard (French: ''Garde Impériale'') was originally a small group of elite soldiers of the French Army under the direct command of Napoleon I, but grew considerably over time. It acted as his bodyguard and tactical reserve, and he ...

. They had one son, Brigadier Thomas Wagstaffe Richard Haycraft.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Haycraft, Thomas 1859 births 1936 deaths People from the London Borough of Islington British barristers Chief justices British Windward Islands judges Mandatory Palestine judges Chief justices of Grenada Knights Bachelor Alumni of St John's College, Oxford Members of the Inner Temple