Ernest Frederick Watermeyer

The Right Honourable
Ernest Frederick Watermeyer
PC, QC
9th Chief Justice of South Africa
In office
1943–1950
Preceded byNicolaas Jacobus de Wet
Succeeded byAlbert van der Sandt Centlivres
Judge of the Appellate Division
In office
1937–1942
Judge of the Cape Provincial Division of the Supreme Court of South Africa
In office
1922–1937
Personal details
Born(1880-10-12)12 October 1880
Graaff-Reinet, Cape Colony (now Eastern Cape, South Africa)
Died18 January 1958(1958-01-18) (aged 77)
Hermanus, Cape Province, Union of South Africa
ChildrenJack Watermeyer
Alma materUniversity of Cambridge
OccupationLawyer and judge
ProfessionBarrister

Ernest Frederick Watermeyer, PC, QC (12 October 1880 – 18 January 1958), was the Chief Justice of South Africa from 1943 to 1950.[1]

Watermeyer was born in Graaff-Reinet in 1880. He was educated at Stellenbosch Gymnasium, Bath College and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he read Mathematics, then Law.

He was called to the bar in England by the Inner Temple in 1904, and admitted to the Cape bar in 1905. He became a King's Counsel in 1921. From 1922 to 1937, he was a judge of the Cape Provincial Division of the Supreme Court of South Africa. In 1937, he was promoted to the Supreme Court's Appellate Division.

In 1943, he was appointed Chief Justice of South Africa and was sworn of the Privy Council the same year, the last Chief Justice of South Africa to be made a Privy Counsellor.[2] He served as Officer Administering the Government of the Union of South Africa in 1950, and retired the same year.[3]

  1. ^ Zimmermann, Reinhard (1996). Southern Cross: Civil Law and Common Law in South Africa. Clarendon Press. p. 125. ISBN 978-0-19-826087-5.
  2. ^ van der Westhuizen, Johann (September 1980). "Our chief justices: E.F. Watermeyer (1943-1950)". De Rebus: 456–458.
  3. ^ "Mr. E. F. Watermeyer". The Sunday Times. 19 January 1958. p. 16.