Leo Baron

Leo Solomon Baron (13 October 1916 – 22 October 1985)[2] was a British lawyer, Royal Air Force officer and contract bridge player who practised law in Southern Rhodesia (today Zimbabwe) during the 1950s and 1960s, sat on the Supreme Court of Zambia during the 1970s, and briefly served as Acting Chief Justice of Zimbabwe in 1983.

Leo S. Baron
Chief Justice of Zimbabwe
(Acting)
In office
1983
Preceded byJohn Fieldsend
Succeeded byTelford Georges
Justice of the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe
In office
1980–1983
Deputy Chief Justice of Zambia
In office
1970s – 18 January 1979
Personal details
Born13 October 1916[1]
Plauen, Kingdom of Saxony
Died22 October 1985(1985-10-22) (aged 69)
Harare, Zimbabwe
Alma materKing's College London (LL.B.)

Biography

Baron was born in Plauen in eastern Germany,[2] the brother of the historian and scientist Jacob Bronowski,[3] and raised in Britain.[2] He read law at King's College London.[2] A contract bridge champion, he developed, with Adam Meredith, the Baron System of bidding during the 1940s.[4]

During the Second World War, Baron was a squadron leader in the Royal Air Force,[5] and was stationed in Southern Rhodesia.[2] He settled there after the war and in 1952 set up a law practice in the self-governing colony's second city, Bulawayo. His clients over the next decade and a half included the prominent black nationalist Joshua Nkomo.[2]

When Ian Smith's government unilaterally declared independence on 11 November 1965, Baron, who challenged the Smith administration's legality, was arrested and kept in solitary confinement until April 1967.[2] He returned to Britain following his release. During the 1970s he returned to Africa to become Deputy Chief Justice of Zambia.[2] While on Zambia's Supreme Court he decided the controversial case Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula, which ruled that the Supreme Court could not prevent the "likely" violation of Zambia's constitution.[6]

Baron was a legal adviser to black nationalist negotiators in the negotiations leading to the Lancaster House Agreement of December 1979, which led to the internationally recognised independence of Zimbabwe the following year.[5] He was appointed Acting Chief Justice of Zimbabwe in 1983, but retired shortly afterwards, citing his health.[2] He died in the Zimbabwean capital Harare on 22 October 1985.[2]

Publications
  • Contract Bridge: the Baron system outlined, Baron and Adam Meredith (London: Nicholson & Watson, 1946), 32 pp. OCLC 556917412
  • The Baron System of Contract Bridge, Baron and Meredith (Leeds: Contract Bridge Equipment Ltd, 1948), 180 pp. OCLC 13504611
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References
  1. 1939 England and Wales Register
  2. Rubenstein, William D; Jolles, Michael A; Rubenstein, Hilary L. (2011). The Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History. London: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 55. ISBN 978-1403939104.
  3. Truscott, Alan (21 January 1990). "Remarkable talent from Eastern Europe showed considerable skill at the game". The New York Times. Page 51 (Pastimes: Bridge). Transcript at BridgeGuys.com. Retrieved 2014-12-04.
  4. Francis, Henry G.; Truscott, Alan F.; Francis, Dorthy A., eds. (1994). The Official Encyclopedia of Bridge (5th ed.). Memphis, TN: American Contract Bridge League. p. 27. ISBN 0-943855-48-9. LCCN 96188639.
  5. Manch, Alan (1985). "Leo Baron". English Bridge Union. Retrieved 23 October 2014. Quote: "His death diminishes us."
  6. Sakala, Julius Bikoloni (2014). The Role of the Judiciary in the Enforcement of Human Rights in Zambia. Image Publishers Ltd. p. 78 [at Google Books]. Retrieved 23 October 2014.

Further reading

The New York Times

  • "Rhodesia transfers Nkomo from prison", 17 November 1964, page 3.
  • "Rhodesia asserts independence; Britain decries act as treason and applies economic sanctions; Smith is defiant", 12 November 1965, page 1.
  • "Rhodesia is like American West with thin coat of Olde England; Enterprise and self-Reliance stressed by the whites, who resent London's attempt to assure blacks' rights", Anthony Lewis, 11 August 1966, page 8.
  • "Rhodesian regime opens talks with black nationalist leaders", 7 January 1976.
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