Richard Feetham
Richard Feethham | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Judge, Transvaal Division of Supreme Court | |
| In office 1923–1930 | |
| Judge President, Natal Provincial Division | |
| In office 1930–1939 | |
| Judge of Appeal, South Africa Court of Appeals | |
| In office 1939–1945 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 22 November 1874 |
| Died | 5 November 1965(aged 90) Pietermaritzburg,Natal |
Richard FeethamCMG(1874–1965) was a lawyer, politician and judge inSouth Africa.He was also the chairman of a number of high-profile international and domestic commissions.
Early life
[edit]Feetham was born on 22 November 1874 inPenrhos, Monmouthshire,the fifth son of the Reverend William and Mary Feetham;[1]he was educated atMarlborough CollegeandNew College, Oxford.He read law inLincoln's Innand wascalled to the barin 1899. He served with theInns of Court Riflesin theSecond Boer War.[2]He was one of the young lawyers selected byLord Milnerto assist him in a policy of reconstruction following theTreaty of Vereeniging,who became known as "Milner's Kindergarten".[1]
Legal career
[edit]Feetham became deputy town clerk ofJohannesburgin 1902 andtown clerkthe following year.[3]: 115 In April 1905, he resigned from the Town Council and joined the South AfricanBar.[3]: 115
Feetham was, apart from other work as a commissioner, also appointed "to enquire into and report upon the facts relating to the tenure by natives of their lots in thePotchefstroomnative location "and after he completed this work, its findings were reported in 1906 by the Government Printer, Pretoria. This commission's work was undertaken because of the claims of the residents of the old native location that members of the Town Council (Stadsraad) in 1888 gave them verbal assurances of a perpetual right of occupation of their stands as long as they paid their annual rent.[4]
He was legal adviser toLord Selborne,the High Commissioner in 1907 and a member of the Legislative Council of the Transvaal from (1907–1910).[5]In 1915 he was elected to theHouse of Assembly of South Africafor the Parktown constituency in Johannesburg.[3]: 115 DuringWorld War I,Feetham was an officer in the South AfricanCape Corpsand served inEast Africaand Egypt.
He was awarded aCMGin 1923 for his services as legal adviser to the High Commissioner for South Africa.[6]
Judicial career
[edit]Feetham resigned from Parliament in 1923 to become a judge of the Transvaal Division of the Supreme Court.[3]: 115 In 1930, he was appointed Judge President of theNatal Provincial Divisionsucceeding Dove Wilson.[3]: 115 In this role, Feetham was able to show his "towering intellect" and "outstanding leadership qualities" to bring about a change for the better in the status of the Natal Court.[7]
In 1939, Feetham became Judge of Appeal on theSouth Africa Court of AppealsinBloemfontein,South Africa's "judicial capital".[2]He retired in 1945.[8]
University of the Witwatersrand
[edit]In 1938, Feetham was elected ViceChancellorof theUniversity of the Witwatersrand,Johannesburg.[3]: 115 He became Chancellor in 1949.[3]: 115 He opposed legislation prohibiting the admission of Non-White students to White tertiary institutions. He also played a leading role in the conference between senior members of the Universities of Cape Town and the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, which led to publication of the bookletThe Open Universities in South Africa(1957).[3]: 115 He resigned from the position of Chancellor in 1961 and from the University Council two years later.[9]
Service as commissioner
[edit]Feetham served as an international and local commissioner on a number of high-profile commissions.
Feetham Function Committee
[edit]He was chairman of theFeetham Function Committeeon Constitutional Reform in India (1918-1919).
Irish Boundary Commission
[edit]
He was Chairman of theIrish Boundary Commission(1924-1925) which decided on the precise delineation of the border between theIrish Free StateandNorthern Irelandfollowing partition in 1921.Lionel Curtis,Lloyd George's main Irish adviser wrote on the appointment of Feetham:
"Incomparably the best man I know for his purpose is one Richard Feetham KC, legal adviser to the Governor General of South Africa. He is an English trained Barrister and a member of the South African assembly who has been through all our constitutional work since Milner's time. On my advice Montague sent him out to India as chairman of a committee to prepare a scheme for the decentralization of powers of the central government. In four months he solved a problem over which the Government of India had been struggling with for over 20 years."[10]
Despite these glowing references the Boundary Commission's report was completely unacceptable to both Northern Irish and Free State governments, and to Feetham's concern was buried, with neither party even prepared to admit having read it.[11]
Kenya Local Government Commission
[edit]In 1926, he was appointed chairman of a commission to consider the development of local government in Kenya, including the ways in which local government could fund itself.[12]
Feetham Report (Shanghai)
[edit]
In 1930, Feetham was appointed by theShanghai Municipal Councilto investigate the possibility of the end ofextraterritorialityin China and its effect on theShanghai International Settlement.At the time, the British Government was engaged in negotiations with theKuomintanggovernment of China to bring an end to extraterritoriality. Feetham proposed that extraterritoriality continue at least in the International Settlement until China could form a united and pacified government with constitutional checks and balances.[13]
Transvaal Asiatic Land Tenure Commission
[edit]Between 1932 and 1935 he chairman of a commission consider the issues around allowing Asians to owning land in the Transvaal.[14]The Transvaal Asiatic Land Tenure Act and its subsequent amendments in 1934, 1935 and 1937 establish statutory segregation of Indians in the Transvaal.[15]
Witwatersrand Land Titles Commission
[edit]Between 1946 and 1949 he was chairman of a commission to consider the ownership of land inWitwatersrand.
Death
[edit]Feetham died on 5 November 1965 inPietermaritzburg,Natal (now kwaZulu-Natal).[9]
Publications
[edit]- Feetham, Richard:Report to the Shanghai Municipal Council,Shanghai: North-China Daily News and Herald, 1931.
- Great Britain, Francis John Stephens Hopwood Southborough, Richard Feetham, Frederic John Napier Thesiger Chelmsford, William Henry Hoare Vincent, and C. Sankaran Nair:East India (Constitutional Reforms: Lord Southborough's Committees),London: H.M. Stationery Off, 1919.
- Feetham, Richard:Political Apartheid and the Entrenched Clauses of the South Africa Act;Dr. Malan's "Historical Facts." [Durban]: Defenders of the Constitution, 1953.
- Feetham, Richard:The High Court of Parliament Act and the Rule of LawDurban: Defenders of the Constitution, 1953. Print.
References
[edit]- ^ab"South Africa: Richard Feetham, C.M.G.".The Round Table.56(222): 205–208. 1966.doi:10.1080/00358536608452604.
- ^abPapers of the Hon. Richard Feetham, The Bodleian Library
- ^abcdefghMusiker, Naomi; Musiker, Reuben (2000).A Concise Historical Dictionary of Greater Johannesburg.Cape Town: Francolin.ISBN1868590712.
- ^Jansen van Rensburg, Fanie (May 2012)."Protest by Potchefstroom native location's residents against dominance, 1904 to 1950".Historia.57(1). The Historical Association of South Africa: 22–41.Retrieved1 August2012.
- ^Quigley, Carroll (1981). "4: Milner's Kindergarten, 1897-1910".The Anglo-American Establishment.Written in 1949.Retrieved14 May2021.
- ^"Notice".London GazetteSupplement.1 January 1924. p. 4.
- ^De Beer, Marina,A History of the Natal Provincial Division of the Supreme Court of South Africa during the Judge Presidency of Richard Feetham (1930-1939): with particular reference to the bench and bar. (LLM thesis)
- ^Richard Feetham, South Africa History online
- ^abSouth African History online entry for Feetham
- ^cited in Margaret O'Callaghan, in "Genealogies of Partition; History, History-Writing and 'the Troubles' in Ireland, in Intervening in Northern Ireland, p150
- ^Notes of a conference with the Irish Boundary Commission held in Stanley Baldwin's Room, House of Commons (Secret) (C.P.503(25))https:// difp.ie/viewdoc.asp?DocID=703
- ^House of Commons Papers – Volume 5 – Page 239
- ^J. Chamberlain, "The Feetham Report on Shanghai", 10 Foreign Aff. 145 1931-1932
- ^Report of the Transvaal Asiatic Land Tenure Commission
- ^South African History online
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