Ernest Frederick Watermeyer

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

The Right Honourable Ernest Frederick Watermeyer PC KC
9th Chief Justice of South Africa
In office 1943–1950
Preceded by	Nicolaas Jacobus de Wet
Succeeded by	Albert 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	12 October 1880 Graaff-Reinet, Cape Colony
Died	18 January 1958 (aged 77) Hermanus, Union of South Africa
Alma mater	University of Cambridge
Profession	King's Counsel

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 1927 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. From 1943 until his retirement in 1950 he was Chief Justice of South Africa. He was sworn of the Imperial Privy Council in 1943, which entitled Chief Justice Watermeyer to the prefix 'The Right Honourable'.

References

1. Zimmermann, Reinhard (1996). Southern Cross: Civil Law and Common Law in South Africa. Clarendon Press. p. 125.