Colonial Judicial Memoirs: From the Inns of Court to the Pacific

This article follows the professional life of a Scottish colonial judge, Gilchrist Alexander, from his time as a pupil in the Middle Temple in the 1890s to his appointment as a colonial legal officer in Fiji, based on his memoirs.Between 1907 and 1920, apart from a two-year period of war service, he served as a chief police magistrate in Fiji, and also acted as attorney general and chief justice.The article focuses on Alexander's memories of his formative years in London, which profoundly shaped his future legal outlook, as well as on his time as a colonial legal officer, providing insights into the practice of law in the Inns of Court and colonial Fiji, as well as in the British empire more widely.The main theme explored in the article is an exploration of the tensions experienced by a colonial judge between contrasting identities, first as a member of the Colonial Legal Service and, and second, as a colonist.An important part of this analysis is Alexander's struggle to maintain detached from members of the colonial administration as well as from local Fijians.Alexander also sought to highlight the difference between members of the Colonial Legal Service who were experienced barristers before being posted to the colonies and government lawyers who had merely been called to the Bar; his close ties with the Inns of Court, in particular the Middle Temple, endured throughout his life and were possibly stronger than those forged in the colonies.