Dendy Young

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John Richard Dendy Young,

Born in Humansdorp District, Cape Colony, Young joined the Public Service of Southern Rhodesia in 1926. Having obtained a BA and a LLB as an external student at the University of South Africa, he resigned from the public service in 1934 and became a barrister, practising at Salisbury. He joined the armed forces in 1940, served in North Africa, Sicily and Italy, and received a commission in the field. Returning to the Rhodesian Bar in 1945, he became a King's Counsel in 1949.

In the

In 1956, Young stepped down from the Federal Assembly when he was appointed a judge of the General Division of the High Court of Southern Rhodesia. Along with his colleague John Fieldsend, Young resigned from the High Court of Rhodesia in 1968 in protest against the Court's rejection of the authority of the Privy Council after Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence: at the time, he was the senior judge of the General Division. In a statement to a crowded courthouse in Bulawayo, Young said that:

The High Court has hitherto functioned as a court of the lawful sovereign under the 1961 Constitution. The rebel regime has actively acquiesced in this mode of functioning by acknowledging the validity of the High Court Orders and by carrying them into execution. The judgment of the Privy Council, which is the Supreme appellate tribunal of the High Court under the 1961 Constitution, becomes the judgment of the High Court. If, then, the authority of the Privy Council is not acknowledged in this country, that is equivalent to a rejection of the authority of the High Court and in my view the only course open to a judge of the High Court is to withdraw from the bench. It is a matter of conscience... There can be no suggestion that my resignation or that of any other judge must lead to a breakdown of law and order. On the contrary, for a judge appointed under the 1961 Constitution to enforce a law that subverts that Constitution is, in my judgment, to overthrow the law of the country. If order is to be maintained under some new system of law then it must be done by judges appointed by those responsible for the creation of the new system.

Later career and death

Young was sworn in as the

Young lost his Rhodesian pension entitlements upon his resignation and was not given a pension by the British government, which forced him to practise at the Bar until he was 85. In his final years, his health was weakened by an assault on returning to his home from work. He died in Cape Town in 1998.

Assessment

In 1978,

• The Late Hon John Richard Dendy Young' (1999) 116 S African LJ 152