Thomas Graham (barrister)

The Honourable Sir Thomas Graham KC
Prime Minister of Cape Colony Acting
In office June –August 1902

Returning to South Africa, he became an advocate of the Supreme Court of Cape Colony. In 1898, he took silk and was elected to the Cape Colony Legislative Council, the Upper House of the Parliament of Cape Colony. Soon afterwards he was appointed Attorney-General in Sir Gordon Sprigg's third government. However, in June 1898 a vote of no confidence was passed in the government, which resigned.

Two years later, Sprigg was back in government, with Graham as Colonial Secretary. In 1902 he became Attorney-General again and from June to August he acted as Prime Minister while Sprigg attended the Coronation of King Edward VII in London.

In 1904 Sprigg's government fell again and Graham was appointed a judge. In 1913 he was appointed Judge-President of the Eastern Districts Local Division of the Supreme Court of South Africa, with his seat in his hometown. He held this post until his retirement in 1937.

He was knighted in the 1920 New Year Honours. ^[3]

Sport participation

In September 1882, Graham participated in the Oxford and Cambridge Challenge Cup tennis tournament, played on grass in Oxford, where he lost in the first round to Robert Wallace Glen Lee Braddell, the son of Sir Thomas Braddell. ^[4] In 1891 he won the South African Doubles Lawn Tennis Championship. Graham was also a keen cricketer and represented the Cape Town-based, Western Province Cricket Club, as a fast bowler. ^[1]

Footnotes

1. Krüger, D. W. (1977). Dictionary of South African biography; VOL III. Beyers, C. J. [Pretoria]: Nasional Boekhandel Bpk. for National Council for Social Research, Dept. of Higher Education. p. 341. ISBN   0-624-00856-8. OCLC   20937.
2. "Graham, Thomas Lynedoch (GRHN879TL)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
3. "Colonial Office List", The Times , 1 January 1920
4. "Profile". tennisarchives.com. Retrieved 24 April 2020.

References

• Obituary, The Times , 8 May 1940