Hugh Beadle

The Right Honourable Sir Hugh Beadle CMG OBE PC
Chief Justice Beadle in 1965
7th Chief Justice of Southern Rhodesia
In office 9 March 1961 – 17 April 1977 (1961-03-09 – 1977-04-17)
Preceded by	Sir John Murray
Succeeded by	Hector Macdonald
Minister of Health and Education
In office 23 April 1948 – 20 July 1950
Prime Minister	Sir Godfrey Huggins
Preceded by	New office
Succeeded by	George Davenport (Education) William Winterton (Health)
Minister of Justice
In office 10 May 1946 – 20 July 1950
Prime Minister	Sir Godfrey Huggins
Preceded by	Harry Bertin
Succeeded by	Julian Greenfield
Minister of Internal Affairs
In office 10 May 1946 – 20 July 1950
Prime Minister	Sir Godfrey Huggins
Preceded by	Sir Ernest Lucas Guest
Succeeded by	Julian Greenfield
Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister
In office 1 June 1940 – 8 March 1946
Prime Minister	Sir Godfrey Huggins
Member of the Southern Rhodesian Legislative Assembly for Bulawayo North
In office 14 April 1939 – 20 July 1950
Preceded by	John Banks Brady Allan Ross Welsh
Succeeded by	Cyril Hatty
Personal details
Born	Thomas Hugh William Beadle (1905-02-06)6 February 1905 Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia
Died	14 December 1980(1980-12-14) (aged 75) Johannesburg, South Africa
Political party	United Party
Alma mater	Cape Town University The Queen's College, Oxford
Military service
Allegiance	United Kingdom  Southern Rhodesia
Branch	Royal Air Force British Army
Service years	1928–1933 1939–1940
Rank	Flying Officer Captain
Wars	Second World War

Sir Thomas Hugh William Beadle, CMG, OBE, PC (6 February 1905 – 14 December 1980) was a Rhodesian lawyer, politician and judge who served as Chief Justice of Southern Rhodesia from March 1961 to November 1965, and as Chief Justice of Rhodesia from November 1965 until April 1977. He came to international prominence against the backdrop of Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) from Britain in November 1965, upon which he initially stood by the British Governor Sir Humphrey Gibbs as an adviser; he then provoked acrimony in British government circles by declaring Ian Smith's post-UDI administration legal in 1968.

Born and raised in the Southern Rhodesian capital Salisbury, Beadle read law in the Union of South Africa and in Great Britain before commencing practice in Bulawayo in 1931. He became a member of the Southern Rhodesian Legislative Assembly for Godfrey Huggins's ruling United Party in 1939. Appointed Huggins's Parliamentary Private Secretary in 1940, he retained that role until 1946, when he became Minister of Internal Affairs and Justice; the Education and Health portfolios were added two years later. He retired from politics in 1950 to become a Judge of the High Court of Southern Rhodesia. In 1961, he was knighted and appointed Chief Justice of Southern Rhodesia; three years later he became president of the High Court's new Appellate Division and a member of the British Privy Council.

Beadle held the Rhodesian Front, the governing party from 1962, in low regard, dismissing its Justice Minister Desmond Lardner-Burke as a "small time country solicitor".^[1] As independence talks between Britain and Southern Rhodesia gravitated towards stalemate, Beadle repeatedly attempted to arrange a compromise. He continued these efforts after UDI, and brought Harold Wilson and Smith together for talks aboard HMS Tiger. The summit failed; Wilson afterwards castigated Beadle for not persuading Smith to settle.

Beadle's de jure recognition of the post-UDI government in Rhodesia in 1968 outraged the Wilson government and drew accusations from the British Prime Minister and others that he had furtively supported UDI all along. His true motives remain the subject of speculation. After Smith declared a republic in 1970, Beadle continued as Chief Justice; he was almost removed from the Imperial Privy Council, but kept his place following Wilson's 1970 electoral defeat soon after. Beadle retired in April 1977 and thereafter sat as an acting judge in special trials for terrorist offences.