Chief Judicial Commissioner for the Western Pacific

The Chief Justice of the High Commissioner's Court, more commonly known as the Chief Judicial Commissioner for the Western Pacific, was the chief judicial officer throughout the British Western Pacific Territories from 1877 through 1976. This was a supra-colonial entity established by the Western Pacific Orders-in-Council 1877 (amended in 1879 and 1880), and by the Pacific Order-in-Council 1893. Headed by a High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, who was also ex officio the Governor of Fiji, until the end of 1952, it included numerous islands, mostly small, throughout Oceania. Composition varied over time, but Fiji (1877–1952) and the Solomon Islands (1893–1976) were its most durable members.

From 1877 through 1961, the Chief Justice of Fiji was ex officio Chief Judicial Commissioner, apart from a three-year suspension of the High Commission from 1942 through 1945 during the War in the Pacific, when many of Britain's colonies in Oceania were under either military administration or Japanese occupation. Appeals lay to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London.

From the beginning of 1953, Fiji and Tonga were separated from the High Commission as a prelude to full independence, and the High Commission offices were transferred to Honiara on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, with the Governor of the Solomon Islands now being the High Commissioner ex officio. The High Commissioner's Court, however, continued to meet in Suva, with the Chief Justice of Fiji continuing as Chief Judicial Commissioner for another decade, until 1962, when the two offices were separated. Under the Western Pacific (Courts) Order in Council, gazetted on 15 August 1961 and effective from 9 April 1962, the High Commissioner's Court was renamed the High Court of the Western Pacific and relocated to the Solomon Islands. The court consisted of a Chief Justice (as the office of Chief Judicial Commissioner was renamed – no longer the Chief Justice of Fiji) and two puisne judges, one based in Port Vila, New Hebrides (now Vanuatu), and the other in Tarawa, Gilbert and Ellice Islands (now Kiribati and Tuvalu).

Most of the island groups had gained either independence or internal self-government by 1971. On 2 January 1976 after nearly all had been given separate statehood, the office of High Commissioner and the entity of the Pacific Territories were abolished. The High Commission of the Western Pacific was abolished, the last archives being finally packed up in Honiara in August 1978. A remnant of the High Commission was the right of appeal from the courts of many island nations to the Court of Appeal of Fiji, then a right of appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, which persisted into the late 1970s.

List of Chief Judicial Commissioners

# Incumbent Portrait Tenure Head of State Notes
Took office Left office
Chief Judicial Commissioner for the Western Pacific and Chief Justice of Fiji (1877–1962)
1. Sir John Gorrie 1877 1882 Victoria
Sir Fielding Clarke
Acting
Sir Fielding Clarke.jpg 1882 1882 Victoria
2. Sir Henry Wrenfordsley 1882 1885 Victoria
Sir Fielding Clarke
Acting for Wrenfordsley
Sir Fielding Clarke.jpg 1884 1885 Victoria
3. Sir Fielding Clarke Sir Fielding Clarke.jpg 1885 1889 Victoria
4. Sir Henry Berkeley Henry Spencer Berkeley.png 1889 1902 Victoria
Edward VII
5. Sir Charles Major 1902 1914 Edward VII
George V
Albert Ehrhardt


Acting for Major

1910 21 February 1911 Edward VII
George V
Ehrhardt, the then Attorney-General of Fiji, acted as Chief Judicial Commissioner while Major, the incumbent Chief Judicial Commissioner, was acting as High Commissioner for the Western Pacific.
6. Sir Charles Davson 1914 1922 George V
Sir Kenneth Muir MacKenzie
Acting
1922 1923 George V
7. Sir Alfred Young, KC 1923 1929 George V
8. Sir Maxwell Anderson, CBE, KC, RN (retd.) 1929 1936 George V
Edward VIII
9. Sir Owen Corrie, MC 1936 1945 Edward VIII
George VI
10. Sir Claud Seton, MC 1945 22 November 1949 George V
11. Sir James Thomson 1949 1953 George VI
Elizabeth II
12. Sir Ragnar Hyne 1953 1958 Elizabeth II
13. Sir Albert Lowe 1958 1962 Elizabeth II
Chief Justice of the High Court of the Western Pacific (1962–1976)
14. Sir Geoffrey Briggs 1962 1965 Elizabeth II
15. Sir Jocelyn Bodilly, R.N.V.R., VRD 14 June 1965 1975 Elizabeth II

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