Henry Gollan
| Henry Gollan | |
|---|---|
 |
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| 12th Attorney General of Ceylon | |
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In office 15 October 1918 – 1924 |
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| Preceded by | Anton Bertram |
| Succeeded by | Lancelot Henry Elphinstone |
| Chief Justice of Hong Kong | |
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In office 1924–1930 |
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| Preceded by | Sir William Rees-Davies |
| Succeeded by | Sir Joseph Horsford Kemp |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
8 January 1868 Coquimbo, Chile |
| Died | 5 August 1949 (aged 81) |
Sir Henry Cowper Gollan CBE KC was a British lawyer and judge. He served as Attorney General and Chief Justice of a number of British colonies in the early 20th Century. His last position before retirement was as Chief Justice of Hong Kong.
Gollan was born on 8 January 1868 in Coquimbo, Chile. He was the son of Sir Alexander Gollan, K.C.M.G, a British diplomat.
He was educated at Charterhouse School. He obtained his Master of Arts degree from the University of Edinburgh in 1887, and was called to the bar by the Middle Temple in January 1891. He joined the Northern Circuit and later practised in London.
In 1899 he was appointed as Private Secretary to Sir Frederick Lugard. Lugard was made High Commissioner of the Northern Nigeria Protectorate in 1900.
In 1900, presumably on Lugard's recommendation, Gollan was appointed Attorney-General and later Chief Justice of Northern Nigeria in 1901. While in Northern Nigeria, he was instrumental in drafting a new criminal code based on the Queensland Criminal Code. He wrote at the time:
"The Queensland Code appeared to me to keep in a much more satisfactory manner than any of the other Codes I have mentioned the mean between over elaboration on the one hand and over compression on the other . . ."
In 1904 he was appointed Chief Justice of Bermuda and in that capacity served as President of the Legislative Council. In Bermuda, he also worked on the development of a Criminal Code also modelled on the Queensland Code.
In 1911, he was appointed Attorney-General of Trinidad and in 1918 the Attorney-General of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).
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