{{Short description|British lawyer and judge (1891–1966)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox officeholder |honorific_prefix = The Honourable |name = Ransley Samuel Thacker |honorific_suffix = KC |alt = |caption =
|order = 15th |office = Attorney General of Fiji |monarch = George V<br />Edward VIII<br />George VI |governor = Sir Arthur Fletcher<br />Cecil Barton<small>(Acting)</small><br />Sir Arthur Richards
|term_start = December 1933 |term_end = 1938 |predecessor = Charles Gough Howell |successor = Edward Enoch Jenkins
|order1 = |office1 = Chief Justice of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines |monarch1 = George V |governor1 = Herbert Walter Peebles
|term_end1 = 1933 |predecessor1 = |successor1 =
|order2 = |office2 = Justice of the Supreme Court of Kenya |monarch2 = George VI |governor2 = Sir Robert Brooke-Popham<br />Walter Harragin<small>(Acting)</small><br />Sir Henry Moore<small>(Acting)</small><br />Gilbert McCall Rennie<small>(Acting)</small><br />Sir Philip Mitchell
|term_start2 = 1938 |term_end2 = 1950 |predecessor2 = |successor2 =
|order3 = |office3 = First Class Magistrate |monarch3 = Elizabeth II |governor3 = Sir Evelyn Baring
|term_start3 = 1952 |term_end3 = 1953 |predecessor3 = None (new office) |successor3 = None (office abolished)
|order4 = |office4 = |monarch4 = |governor4 = |predecessor4 = |successor4 =
|order5 = |office5 = |monarch5 = |governor5 = |predecessor5 = |successor5 =
|birth_date = 1891<ref>{{cite web|title=Thacker, Ransley Samuel (1891-1965) Colonial Judge|url=http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F51382|website=The National Archives|accessdate=26 September 2015}}</ref> |birth_place = Nottingham, United Kingdom |death_date = 3 January 1966<ref>[https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-331482465/view?partId=nla.obj-331584276#page/n154/mode/1up Mr. R.S. Thacker] ''Pacific Islands Monthly'', February 1966, p. 153.</ref> |death_place = Chipunga, Rhodesia<ref>"Mr. Ransley S. Thacker", ''East Africa and Rhodesia'', 6 January 1966.</ref> |citizenship = |party = |other_party = <!--For additional political affiliations--> |spouse = Olive Frances Braithwaite<br /><small>m. 1915</small> |children = 1 daughter, 1 son |occupation = Lawyer, Jurist }}
'''Ransley Samuel Thacker''' {{post-nominals|UK|QC}} (1891 – 3 January 1966) was a British lawyer and judge. Employed in the colonial service, he served as Chief Justice of St Vincent (1931–1933), Attorney General of Fiji (1933-1938), and as a judge in British Kenya. He is best known for the jailing of Jomo Kenyatta.
==Legal and political career== In the early 1930s, Thacker served as Chief Justice of St Vincent, and was serving in that role as of 7 July 1933.<ref>{{cite web|title=UK, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960 forRansley Thacker|url=http://interactive.ancestry.com.au/1518/30807_A001019-00201?pid=12298653&backurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.Ancestry.com.au%2f%2fcgi-bin%2fsse.dll%3findiv%3d1%26db%3dbt26%26gss%3dangs-d%26new%3d1%26rank%3d1%26msT%3d1%26gsfn%3dRansley%26gsfn_x%3d1%26gsln%3dThacker%26gsln_x%3d1%26mswpn__ftp%3dKenya%252c%2bFiji%26MSAV%3d1%26gskw_x%3d1%26_83004002_x%3d1%26cp%3d0%26catbucket%3drstp%26uidh%3det5%26pcat%3d40%26fh%3d1%26h%3d12298653%26recoff%3d%26ml_rpos%3d2&treeid=&personid=&hintid=&usePUB=true|website=Ancestry.com|accessdate=26 September 2015}}</ref>
Thacker took up the post of Attorney General of Fiji at the end of 1933, passing through Sydney en route to Suva on 21 December.<ref>{{cite web|title=Fremantle, Western Australia, Passenger Lists, 1897-1963 for Mr Ransley Samuel Thacker|url=http://interactive.ancestry.com.au/5378/32704_334603-00294?pid=724211&backurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.Ancestry.com.au%2f%2fcgi-bin%2fsse.dll%3findiv%3d1%26db%3dauswestpassengerlists%26gss%3dangs-d%26new%3d1%26rank%3d1%26msT%3d1%26gsfn%3dRansley%26gsfn_x%3d1%26gsln%3dThacker%26gsln_x%3d1%26mswpn__ftp%3dKenya%252c%2bFiji%26MSAV%3d1%26gskw_x%3d1%26_83004002_x%3d1%26cp%3d0%26catbucket%3drstp%26uidh%3det5%26pcat%3d40%26fh%3d0%26h%3d724211%26recoff%3d7%2b9%26ml_rpos%3d1&treeid=&personid=&hintid=&usePUB=true|website=Ancestry.com|accessdate=26 September 2015}}</ref>
Thacker served as judge on the Supreme Court of British Kenya from 1938 to 1950.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Elkins|first1=Caroline|title=Britain's Gulag: The Brutal End of Empire in Kenya|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6uYtafSC1CsC&q=%22Ransley+Thacker%22&pg=PA40|year=2005|isbn=9781844135486|accessdate=26 September 2015}}</ref> He retired to Nairobi on a £474 pension, which he supplemented by practicing law. He was called out of retirement on 17 November 1952, however, as a First Class Magistrate to preside over the trial of the Kapenguria Six — Jomo Kenyatta and five others accused of organizing the Mau Mau movement.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Reed|first1=David E.|title=Institute of Current World Affairs|url=http://www.icwa.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/DER-4.pdf|website=Institute of Current World Affairs|accessdate=27 September 2015|date=30 August 1953}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Anderson|first1=David|title=Histories of the Hanged: Britain's Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9-LhkJxuaXYC&q=%22Ransley+Thacker%22&pg=PT40|date=30 December 2011|isbn=9781780222882|accessdate=26 September 2015}}</ref> He was bribed for £20,000 by Governor Evelyn Baring from an emergency fund, as were the fabricated witnesses from the Attorney-General's office's funds.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Elkins |first=Caroline |title=Britain's Gulag : The Brutal End of Empire in Kenya |date=11 January 2005 |publisher=Henry Holt and Company, LLC |isbn=978-1-5299-4618-5 |pages=40 |language=en}}</ref> On 8 April 1953, Thacker sentenced them to seven years' hard labour. In his summing up, Thacker declared:
{{Cquote|You have successfully plunged many Africans back to a state which shows little humanity. You have persuaded them in secret to murder, burn and commit atrocities which will take many years to forget.<ref>{{cite news|title=1953: Seven years' hard labour for Kenyatta|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/8/newsid_2887000/2887641.stm|website=BBC Home|date=8 April 1953|access-date=26 September 2015}}</ref>}}
He added: {{Cquote|You have let loose upon this land a flood of misery and unhappiness affecting the daily lives of the races in it, including your own people.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Meredith|first1=Martin|title=The State of Africa: A History of the Continent Since Independence|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jNZ6srograIC&q=%22Ransley+Thacker%22&pg=PT109|date=September 2011|isbn=9780857203892|accessdate=26 September 2015}}</ref>}}
Kenyatta remained imprisoned until 14 April 1959, and his civil rights were not fully restored until August 1961.
==Personal life== Thacker was the son of Henry Thacker and Eliza Jackson.
In 1915, Thacker married Olive Frances Braithwaite in London. They had three children, Daphne Elinor (born 1917), Derek (born c.1919) and Derwent Allan (born 1921).<ref>{{cite web|title=Fremantle, Western Australia, Passenger Lists, 1897-1963 forMr Ransley Samuel Thacker|url=http://interactive.ancestry.com.au/5378/32704_334603-00294?pid=724211&backurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.Ancestry.com.au%2f%2fcgi-bin%2fsse.dll%3findiv%3d1%26db%3dauswestpassengerlists%26gss%3dangs-d%26new%3d1%26rank%3d1%26msT%3d1%26gsfn%3dRansley%26gsfn_x%3d1%26gsln%3dThacker%26gsln_x%3d1%26mswpn__ftp%3dKenya%252c%2bFiji%26MSAV%3d1%26gskw_x%3d1%26_83004002_x%3d1%26cp%3d0%26catbucket%3drstp%26uidh%3det5%26pcat%3d40%26fh%3d0%26h%3d724211%26recoff%3d7%2b9%26ml_rpos%3d1&treeid=&personid=&hintid=&usePUB=true|website=Ancestry.com|accessdate=26 September 2015}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Thacker, Ransley}} Category:1891 births Category:1966 deaths Category:Attorneys general of the Colony of Fiji Category:Attorneys-general of Fiji Category:Members of the Legislative Council of Fiji Category:Chief justices of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Category:British Kenya judges Category:British Windward Islands judges Category:People from Nottingham Category:British expatriates in Fiji Category:English King's Counsel Category:20th-century English lawyers