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 The Chief Justice of South Africa is the most senior judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, Constitutional Court and head of the judiciary of South Africa, who exercises final authority over the functioning and management of all the c ...

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 The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...

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 John Stewart MacArthur was a chemist from Glasgow. Born on 9 December 1856, he is credited with the development of the MacArthur-Forrest cyanidation process in 1887, used to extract gold in South Africa. His patent for the process was voided. W ...

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 Sir Lionel Phillips, 1st Baronet (6 August 1855 – 2 July 1936) was a British people, British-born South African financier, Mining Magnate, mining magnate and politician. Early life Phillips was born in London on 6 August 1855 to Phillip Phi ...

, Frank Rhodes, Sir

George Farrar Sir George Herbert Farrar, 1st Baronet, (17 June 1859 – 20 May 1915) was a South African mining magnate, politician and soldier – Colonel and assistant Quartermaster General – Central Force, Union Defence Force (South Africa), Union Defen ...

and

John Hays Hammond John Hays Hammond (March 31, 1855 – June 8, 1936) was an American mining engineer, diplomat, and philanthropist. He amassed a sizable fortune before the age of 40. An early advocate of deep mining, Hammond was given complete charge of Ce ...

at their treason trial in Pretoria in 1896 after the

Jameson Raid The Jameson Raid (29 December 1895 – 2 January 1896) was a botched Raid (military), raid against the South African Republic (commonly known as the Transvaal) carried out by British colonial administrator Leander Starr Jameson, under the emplo ...

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 The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sout ...

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 The Transvaal Colony () was the name used to refer to the Transvaal region during the period of direct British rule and military occupation between the end of the Second Boer War in 1902 when the South African Republic was dissolved, and the ...

established a Supreme Court of Transvaal 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 Sir James Rose Innes (8 January 1855 – 16 January 1942) was the Chief Justice of South Africa from 1914 to 1927 and, in the view of many, its greatest ever judge. Before becoming a judge he was a member of the Cape Parliament, the Cape Colo ...

as Chief Justice. He was knighted in 1909. On the establishment of the

Union of South Africa The Union of South Africa ( nl, Unie van Zuid-Afrika; af, Unie van Suid-Afrika; ) was the historical predecessor to the present-day Republic of South Africa. It came into existence on 31 May 1910 with the unification of the Cape, Natal, Trans ...

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