Alfred Lucie-Smith

Sir Alfred van Waterschoodt Lucie-Smith (9 January 1854 – 3 June 1947) was a British colonial judge.

Lucie-Smith was born in Demerara, British Guiana, the second son of Sir John Lucie-Smith, later the Chief Justice of Jamaica, and his wife Marie, eldest daughter of J. R. van Waterschoodt.[1] He was educated at Rugby School and from 1877 worked as a solicitor in British Guiana.[2]

In 1878 he entered the Middle Temple, where he was called to the bar in 1881, and a year later became acting Solicitor General of British Guiana.[2] He was sent to Cyprus in 1887 where he served as president of a district court in Famagusta.[2] After five years, he was transferred to another court in Limassol.[2] Lucie-Smith was nominated an Acting Queen's Advocate in 1893 and was attached to Constantinople in 1895 as an Acting Consular Judge.[2] Only a year later he came to Kingston, Jamaica, where he acted as the parish's resident magistrate.[2]

In 1898, Lucie-Smith returned to British Guiana, having been made a Puisne Judge.[3] He stayed in this office until 1908, when he was appointed Chief Justice of Trinidad and Tobago.[4] He was created a Knight Bachelor in 1911[5] and retired as judge in 1924.[6]

On 15 August 1885, he had married Rose Alice, seventh daughter of Edward Leopold Aves at the church Nuestra Señora del Monte in Demarara.[7] After her death, he remarried 4 September 1901, in Kensington, Mary Meta Ruth Palmer Ross, daughter of Sir David Palmer Ross, at some time Surgeon-General of British Guiana.[8] Lucie-Smith was father of eight sons and a daughter.[6] His son John served also as a judge and was Chief Justice of Sierra Leone.[6]

His nephew Euan Lucie-Smith was one of the first mixed-heritage infantry officers in a regular British Army regiment, and the first killed in World War I.[9]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ Reade (1904), p. 213
  2. ^ a b c d e f Debrett (1922), p. 480
  3. ^ "No. 26927". The London Gazette. 7 January 1898. p. 83.
  4. ^ "No. 28161". The London Gazette. 24 July 1908. p. 5420.
  5. ^ "No. 28469". The London Gazette. 24 February 1911. p. 1462.
  6. ^ a b c Who's Who (1947), p. 1693
  7. ^ "Marriage Notices". The Times. 15 September 1885.
  8. ^ "Marriages". The Times. No. 36553. London. 6 September 1901. p. 1.
  9. ^ Sanderson, Ginny (22 October 2020). "First black British officer of First World War was Eastbourne student". eastbourneherald.co.uk. Retrieved 16 November 2020.

References

[edit]
  • Reade, Compton (1904). The Smith Family. London: Elliot Stock.
  • Who's Who 1947. London: Adam & Charles Black Ltd. 1947.
  • Debrett, John (1922). Arthur G. M. Hesilrige (ed.). Debrett's House of Commons and Judicial Bench. London: Dean & Son Ltd.
Legal offices
Preceded by Chief Justice of Trinidad and Tobago
1908–1924 		Succeeded by
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