Ransley Thacker

Ransley Samuel Thacker QC (1891 – 3 January 1966) was a British lawyer and judge. Employed in the colonial service, he served as Chief Justice of St Vincent (1931–1933), Attorney General of Fiji (1933-1938), and as a judge in British Kenya. He is best known for the jailing of Jomo Kenyatta.

The Honourable Ransley Samuel Thacker KC
15th Attorney General of Fiji
In office December 1933 – 1938
Monarch	George V Edward VIII George VI
Governor	Sir Arthur Fletcher Cecil Barton(Acting) Sir Arthur Richards
Preceded by	Charles Gough Howell
Succeeded by	Edward Enoch Jenkins
Chief Justice of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Monarch	George V
Governor	Herbert Walter Peebles
Justice of the Supreme Court of Kenya
In office 1938–1950
Monarch	George VI
Governor	Sir Robert Brooke-Popham Walter Harragin(Acting) Sir Henry Moore(Acting) Gilbert McCall Rennie(Acting) Sir Philip Mitchell
First Class Magistrate
In office 1952–1953
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Governor	Sir Evelyn Baring
Preceded by	None (new office)
Succeeded by	None (office abolished)
Personal details
Born	1891[1] Nottingham, United Kingdom
Died	3 January 1966[2] Chipunga, Rhodesia[3]
Nationality	British subject
Spouse(s)	Olive Frances Braithwaite m. 1915
Children	1 daughter, 1 son
Occupation	Lawyer, Jurist

Legal and political career

In the early 1930s, Thacker served as Chief Justice of St Vincent, and was serving in that role as of 7 July 1933.[4]

Thacker took up the post of Attorney General of Fiji at the end of 1933, passing through Sydney en route to Suva on 21 December.[5]

Thacker served as judge on the Supreme Court of British Kenya from 1938 to 1950.[6] He retired to Nairobi 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 to preside over the trial of the Kapenguria Six — Jomo Kenyatta and five others accused of organizing the Mau Mau movement.[7][8] On 8 April 1953, Thacker sentenced them to seven years' hard labour. In his summing up, Thacker declared:

You have successfully plunged many Africans back to a state which shows little humanity. You have persuaded them in secret to murder, burn and commit atrocities which will take many years to forget.[9]

He added:

You have let loose upon this land a flood of misery and unhappiness affecting the daily lives of the races in it, including your own people.[10]

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. They had three children, Daphne Elinor (born 1917), Derek (born c.1919) and Derwent Allan (born 1921).[11]

References

1. "Thacker, Ransley Samuel (1891-1965) Colonial Judge". The National Archives. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
2. Mr. R.S. Thacker Pacific Islands Monthly, February 1966, p153
3. "Mr. Ransley S. Thacker", East Africa and Rhodesia, 6 January 1966
4. "UK, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960 forRansley Thacker". Ancestry.com. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
5. "Fremantle, Western Australia, Passenger Lists, 1897-1963 forMr Ransley Samuel Thacker". Ancestry.com. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
6. Elkins, Caroline. "Britain's Gulag: The Brutal End of Empire in Kenya". Google Books. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
7. Reed, David E. (30 August 1953). "Institute of Current World Affairs" (PDF). Institute of Current World Affairs. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
8. Anderson, David. "Histories of the Hanged: Britain's Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire". Google Books. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
9. "1953: Seven years' hard labour for Kenyatta". BBC Home. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
10. Meredith, Martin. "The State of Africa: A History of the Continent Since Independence". Google Books. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
11. "Fremantle, Western Australia, Passenger Lists, 1897-1963 forMr Ransley Samuel Thacker". Ancestry.com. Retrieved 26 September 2015.