FAWKES, Archibald Walter, Hon Justice (1855-1941)

Few men are better known and more highly respected by one and all than the Hon. Justice ARCHIBALD WALTER FAWKES, K.C., the First Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court of the Orange River Colony. As a fearless judge his name is a household word in South Africa, as a man he is beloved by all who have the honour and pleasure of his acquaintance. Born just over a half a century ago at Broom Hall, Sheffield, he is the youngest son of the late Major Richard Fawkes of the 27th Inniskillings, and is a brother of Admiral Fawkes, Commander-in-Chief of the Australian Station. After a primary education at the famous Repton School, he proceeded to Cambridge, entering St. John's College, taking his B.A. degree in the year 1876. Three years later he was called to the Bar by the Inner Temple. He later practised for a short time in the North Eastern Circuit before coming down to the Midland Circuit, where he practised for the following four years. He then took an appointment in the Colonial Service, and went to the Straits Settlements as Registrar of the Supreme Court and Commissioner of the Courts of Request, and was later, in the year 1885, transferred to act at Penang.

Two years later he received the appointment as Police Magistrate at Gibraltar. While here the world as startled by the fearful news of the foundering of the emigrant ship "Utopia," which went down in the Gibraltar Bay with a loss of some 450 lives, and Mr. Fawkes had the unenviable task of presiding at the inquests.

In 1890-1 he acted as Attorney-General at Gibraltar, and in 1892 he was appointed Attorney-General and created a Q.C. On several occasions during the time he was at Gibraltar he acted as Chief Justice. He was also appointed by the Foreign Office Legal Adviser to Her Britannic Majesty's Legation at Tangier, Morocco, and was Legal Adviser to the War Department and Admiralty at Gibraltar. It was in 1902 that he received his present appointment as First Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court of the Orange River Colony. On his arrival in South Africa he was appointed President of the Special Criminal Court. In January and February of 1906 he acted as a Puisne Judge in the Supreme Court of the Transvaal.

In the year 1884 he married Evelyn, youngest daughter of the late George Johnson, Esq., of Castleleads, Brompton, Cumberland. He is an ardent supporter of all kinds of manly port, and is the popular President of the Golf Club. He was a member of the Repton Eleven in the years 1872-3. His club is the Bloemfontein Club.

Footnote: Archibald Walter died op 19 December 1941 in Surrey, England.

Source: Men of the Times, published by The Transvaal Publishing Company, Johannesburg, Cape Town & London, printed by Eyre and Spottiswood, His Majesty’s Printers, 1906, p. 524