Northern Ireland

South African Judge to Chair Boundary Commission – On This Day in 1924

Richard Feetham accepts lead role in commission to settle Irish border question

Judge Richard Feetham
The Boundary Commission was chaired by Judge Richard Feetham
By Cormac Moore
June 6 1924

Mr [Stanley] Baldwin asked the Prime Minister if he could announce the name of the chairman of the Irish Boundary Commission.

Mr [Ramsay] MacDonald: With the full approval of the Government of the Union of South Africa, his Majesty’s Government had asked Mr Justice [Richard] Feetham, a member of the South African Supreme Court, to undertake this duty.

I am very glad to be able to inform the house that Mr Justice Feetham has accepted the appointment, and will leave South Africa for this country next week.

Perhaps I may be permitted to remind the House that Mr Justice Feetham has already rendered valuable public services in connection with Indian reforms.

Mr [Edwin] Montagu availed himself of his advice on constitutional questions in the discussions and investigations preliminary to the drafting of the Government of India Bill of 1919.

He served with distinction as chairman of the important committee then appointed by the Secretary of State for India to inquire into questions connected with the division of functions in India between the central and provincial governments, and in the provincial governments in that country between the executive council and ministers, a question the complexity and importance of which it would be difficult to overstate.

Consequent on the report of this committee, Mr Feetham gave evidence before the Joint Select Committee of both Houses, which sat in the course of 1919 to consider the constitutional reform proposed in India.

Mr Justice Feetham, who is 50 years of age, is a son of the late Rev William Feetham, Vicar of Penrhos, Raglan, Monmouthshire, his maternal grandfather being the Venerable Archdeacon Crawley.

He emigrated to South Africa soon after he had been called to the Bar in 1899 and was appointed Town Clerk of Johannesburg in 1903. Afterwards he was legal adviser to the High Commissioner, member of the Transvaal Legislative Council, and member of the House of Assembly of the Union of South Africa. He was raised to the Bench last year.

A brother of his is the Right Rev John Oliver Feetham, Bishop of North Queensland since 1913.

With former Canadian Prime Minister Robert Borden having turned down the role, British-born, South African-based Justice Richard Feetham accepted the position offered by the British government of chairman of the Irish Boundary Commission.